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MEMOIRS OF 
M. DE BLOWITZ 




M. DE BLOWITZ IN LATER LIFE 
[From the painting by Benjamin Constant] 



%emoirs of 
M.DE BLOWITZ 




New York 
Doubledqy Pqgre and Co, 

19 3 



THEliBRAKYOF 
COKC^K&SS 

Two Copies Kecelvet 

OCT 2 '^03 

Copytigh* tiAty 
CLASS <^ XXc No 

y ^ ^ ^ c 







Copyright, 1889, 1891, 1892. 189^, by 

Harper & Brothers 

Copyright, I902, 1903. by 

Curtis Publishing Company 

Copyright, 1903, by 

Doubleday, Page & Company 

Published, October, 1903 



PUBLISHERS' NOTE. 

Much of the material which forms this 
volume has appeared serially in Harper^s 
Monthly Magazine and in The Saturday 
Evening Post. About a third of the volume 
has not been published hitherto. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 




PAGE 


I. 


Early Youth 


3 


11. 


How I Became a Journalist 


23 


III. 


A Champagne Conspiracy 


52 


IV. 


Alphonso XII. Proclaimed King of Spair 


L 68 


V. 


The French Scare of 1875 


91 


VI. 


The Berlin Congress 


116 


VII. 


What Bismarck Told Me 


140 


VIII. 


Gambetta and Bismarck 


150 


IX. 


Alva 


156 


X. 


The Revenge of Venus 


194 


XI. 


A Life Struggle .... 


212 


XII. 


Why France Did Not Go to Egypt . 


. 234 


XIII. 


My Interview with the Sultan 


242 


XIV. 


Exile of the French Princes 


270 


XV. 


San Remo 


■ 279 


XVI. 


How Bismarck Retired 


292 


XVII. 


Diplomacy and Journalism 


307 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

M. DE Blowitz in Later Life . . . Frontispiece 

From the painting by Benjamin Constant 

FACING PAGE 

The DE Blowitz Family Tree ..... 4 
Madame de Blowitz ....... 20 

From a photograph made during the last year of her life 

M. Thiers 38 

The de Blov/itz Coat of Arms ..... 88 

M. DE Blowitz in 1878 at the Berlin Congress . 116 

Prince Hohenlohe ....... 128 

From an autographed photo presented to M. de Blowitz 

M. DE Blowitz as Often Seen in the Streets of 

Paris with His Niece .... 148 

From a photograph made during the last year of his life 

Specimen of the Handwriting of M. de Blowitz, 
Written a Few Days Before the Opening of 
THE Chicago Exposition ..... 180 

LesPetites Dalles, in Normandy .... 226 

Showing the country house of M. de Blowitz, situated on the top 
of the hill 

Les Lampottes ........ 232 

M. de Blowitz's country house in Normandy 

MoNS. de Blowitz ....... 258 

As he travelled to Constantinople in 1883 and as he was received 
by Sultan Abdul-Hamid 

Facsimile of Part of Letter from the Comte 
de Paris, the French Pretender, to M. 
de Blowitz ........ 272 

About the book which the Comte de Paris was writing on the Ameri- 
can Civil War 

ix 



LIST OF ILUJSTRATIONS— Continued 

Dinner Given by M. de Blowitz, Showing the 

Guests ........ 290 

Silver Statue Given to M. de Blowitz on His 
Retirement, by the Paris Correspondents 
of All Foreign Papers, December 18, 1902 . 302 

All the Paris Correspondents of the Foreign 

Press Assembled Around M. de Blowitz . .316 

At the Hotel Ritz, Paris, on the day of his retirement, December 
18, 1902 



X 



MEMOIRS OF 
M. DE BLOWITZ 



CHAPTER I 
Early Youth 

MY origin, infancy and youth have been narrated 
so often that no one will, I hope, find fault 
with me if, in my turn, I myself give an account 
of them. Since they have appeared sufficiently inter- 
esting for others to relate, I also have acquired the right 
to do so without being taxed with presumption. In any 
case, I venture to say that, instead of the fantastic tales 
which have appeared, nothing but "information derived 
from an absolutely authorised source" will be found in 
the following pages. In writing these lines, which will 
not appear until after I am in the grave, I have but one 
ambition: that of saying the truth, all the truth; and 
I have but one desire: that of preventing persons from 
disfiguring, for their own pleasure or passion, events 
with which I have been closely connected. 

On December 28, 1825, at the Chateau of Blowsky, in 
the region of Pilsna, in Bohemia, there was born a child 
with a big head and a feeble body. The doctors who 
had been summoned to his bedside shook their heads in 
silence and declared ' ' that he had a weak heart and was 
ill formed," and, consequently, would not live. The 
child's mother thereupon decided that the proper thing 
to do was to have him baptised without delay. And so, 
on December 29th, while the snow was falling heavily and 

3 



4 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

a strong wind was carrying off a peal of bells, he was 
conveyed to the little chapel of the little village of 
Blowsky, and there the Reverend Father Wasck, Arch- 
priest of the parish, administered him with the holy 
sacrament of baptism. At the same time, on the old 
register of the church, which contained the names of all 
his ancestors, from Seigneur Kaspar de Blowitz of 
Palatine, who founded the village school, to Seigneur 
Marc Opper de Blowitz, who owned the ancient chateau, 
he entered the newborn child under the names of Henri- 
Georges-Stephan-Adolphe, and promised to say a mass 
in order that God might allow him to live. 

I should not be telling the truth were I to say that I 
recall all these facts, for however good my memory may 
be it is not capable of that. But they have been affirmed 
to me so often by my mother, repeated by the venerable 
Archpriest, and denied by the Doctor, that, finally, I 
am absolutely persuaded they are true. The parish 
register may, however, be taken as evidence; it leaves 
no doubt as to my having been bom a Catholic, baptised 
twenty-four hours after my birth, and that I did not 
have time to become a Jew. I regret it, moreover — 
for Israel 

Of my early childhood I remember but little ; the few 
incidents that I am able to recall do not appear to me 
worthy of being rendered public. I will say, however, 
one thing. When I was six years of age but little was 
wanting — that little being a bridge over a stream — ^for 
me never to have been correspondent of The Times. 
This is what happened. 

One summer evening there was nobody at home in the 
paternal chateau. My father was away hunting in the 



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. VII 






THE DE BLOWITZ FAMILY TREE 



EARLY YOUTH 5 

environs with some of his lordly friends, and my mother 
was absent. I was playing in the park, when at a turn 
of the road an old, worn-out gypsy cart appeared on the 
scene. It was drawn by an emaciated horse and driven 
by a sordid old woman in shreds. A pale and wretched- 
looking man followed. In the vehicle were some raggedly 
garbed children, among them being a little girl with a 
beautifully dressed Polichinelle. The fact is, the doll 
Punch was altogether too beautifully dressed. 

What took place ? Did the man take me by the hand ? 
Did the woman speak to me? I have forgotten, but 
what I have not forgotten is the attractive Polichinelle 
and its bright black eyes. Ten minutes afterward I 
was being rolled along in the gypsy cart. I had been 
kidnapped. It seemed to me as if new life had been 
suddenly infused into the emaciated horse, whose pace 
was quickened, and the tired-looking man pushed the 
cart so as to advance faster. 

"If you are a good boy," said the woman, "we will 
let you play the drum and blow a trumpet all the time." 

And in order to give me an advance taste of these 
future pleasures, they brought out from the back of the 
vehicle an old box which, when unpacked, was found to 
contain, helter-skelter, costumes, drums, wigs, horns — 
all things that I had greatly admired at the recent 
village fete. 

" Have you got a locket on you?" was a question asked 
me by the young girl with the beautiful black eyes. 

I answered by showing her a small gold locket hanging 
from a chain round my neck and which my mother had 
given me. 

"All right," she said, somewhat sadly. "Be careful 



6 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

and keep it, and always tell everybody that your mother 
placed it there. I have one also, look — and I keep it. 
But my mother has never come to claim me yet." 

Our ride in the cart continued without a halt for five 
or six hours and we must have covered quite a respectable 
distance, when suddenly far away in the silence of the 
forest we heard shouts and the sounds of hunting- 
horns. 

" They are looking for us," said the woman. 

The man uttered an oath and whipped the horse. 
The little girl with the black eyes grasped my hand and 
in a very low voice said to me : 

"It is better it should be thus. It is preferable 
that they should find you. You do not know what is in 
store for you if you remain with us." 

I was very much amused and I looked about and 
listened. Evidently at the chateau my absence had 
been remarked and they were looking for me. 

A terrible race ensued. The horse seemed suddenly 
endowed with fresh vigour, as if he were conscious of the 
chase that was in progress and as if he were accustomed 
to adventures of the kind. 

The old gypsy cart jolted noisily over the stones with 
v/hich the road was strewn. In the distance the sounds 
of the horns were distinguishable, first a long way off, then 
nearer, and then far away again. Will they overtake 
us ? Will they not overtake us ? 

Until now we had been driving along one solitary road 
which bruskly ran into a glade, and two roads appeared. 
Which were we going to take ? The one on the right or 
the one on the left? The man, who had not ceased 
swearing, hesitated. And here I firmly believe mv fate 



EARLY YOUTH 7 

was settled. If he had taken the road on the right I do 
not know where I should have been at this hour. 

But he took the one on the left, which led us down a 
little hill toward a river. After another mile the stream 
appeared, but there was no bridge across it. The road 
went no farther. As we reached this spot the horns were 
blowing louder than ever. The clamours of a number 
of men on horseback could be heard plainer and plainer. 
There could no longer be any doubt ; they were in pursuit 
and about to overtake us. The spare man and the ragged 
woman and the wretched children certainly understood 
what was going on, for they quickly abandoned horse, 
cart, boxes and all their possessions and threw themselves 
into the water, swam across, and two minutes later could 
be seen running away at full speed on the other bank of 
the river. 

I remained alone in the gypsy cart, alone with Polichi- 
nelle. A few minutes later my father, for he was among 
the men on horseback, found us lying down quietly in 
the rear of the cart. I had been found. I was taken 
back home. I do not know whether they said anything 
to Polichinelle, but I do know that they said something 
to me. And I also know very well that if the gypsy who 
had kidnapped me had taken the road on the right, which 
disappeared in the mountain mazes, I should never have 
been found. Que diablel What should I have been 
doing now? 

The above episode is the only one of any importance. 
All the remainder is monotonous. I never went to school, 
much less to any tiniversity. My young days were 
spent entirely in the large ancestral chateau, in the shade 



8 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

of the wild forest. I read and worked but little. I 
walked a great deal. My memory, which all my lifetime 
has been my powerful and precious atixiliary, was formed 
almost entirely alone. It was innate and natural. It 
required no training. 

In my father's room there used to be an enormous 
stick with a gold knob which I always admired and 
envied. Every time I saw it I used to ask for it ; I longed 
to have it and keep it. 

One day my father said to me : 

"Listen, I will give you this stick if to-morrow you 
recite to me by heart the legend of ' Kosros the Wise.' " 

That was a way of getting rid of me, for the Hungarian 
legend of "Kosros the Wise" is quite as long as 
Shakespeare's "Hamlet," and Sir Henry Irving will tell 
you that twenty-four hours constitute a very short time 
for one to learn "Hamlet." 

Nevertheless, the following day I went to my father's 
room, and without a mistake or hesitation I recited to him 
all the wonderful legend, from the day when the daughter 
of Kosros chose as husband Pryemilas, a mere labourer, 
imtil the day when his sister Wlaska, at the head of an 
army of Amazons, won, with the aid of the Czechs, the 
battle of the White Mountain. 

The stick with the gold knob became my property. 
I did not keep it. But, thank Heaven, I kept my 
memory. 

At the age of fifteen, after a somewhat rudimentary 
education that, nevertheless, included various poetic 
legends, which I learned whenever I had a longing for some 
of the paternal belongings, my father decided that I should 
travel. He supplied me with money and gave me as 



EARLY YOUTH 9 

companion a tutor who had taken his degree of doctor 
of philosophy. I started out one morning on foot, and 
was soon lost in the distance, en route for unknown parts. 

I think I must have travelled through the whole of the 
immense Empire of Austria. It was not, at that time, 
what civilisation has made of it at the present day. In 
the distant or frontier provinces superstition and fanati- 
cism reigned supreme. During my long peregrinations I 
had some striking examples of both, and they have left 
on my mind an indelible impression. 

Not very far from my native village was a quiet little 
country town called Griinberg. Any travellers who 
might nowadays venture to explore this little out-of-the- 
world nook of Bohemia would notice, close by a peaceful 
pool, an old church, an odd mixture of all styles of archi- 
tecture. It is a very poor, modest little church, but it 
possesses a life-size statue of St. John in massive silver. 
Curiously enough, this statue has only one arm, and one 
would be inclined to protest against this willful mutila- 
tion if it were not connected with a strange incident of 
which I was a witness. 

The day after I had left my father's chateau I arrived 
at Grunberg and found the town in the wildest state 
of excitement. The statue of St. John had been stolen 
a week before, and the whole country was searching 
for it. The Bishop of Klattau had ordered proces- 
sions in all the neighbouring districts, and every 
day the priest of St, John's, an old man, but upright and 
of commanding appearance, besought his parishioners 
to tell what they knew of the theft. 

I have already spoken of a small pool which is near 
the church. This pool was surrounded by a bank, which 



lo MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

was very steep on the side near the water ; at the top of 
which was a narrow path. The procession was about to 
take place just as I arrived, and in order to reach the other 
side of the pool it had to walk for about two hundred 
yards along this narrow path at the top of the bank. 

At the head of the procession was the old priest, pray- 
ing as he walked along, and carrying a second relic, which 
was almost as much venerated as the statue. 

Half-way along the path — I can see the whole scene 
distinctly — the priest stimibled against the roots of a 
newly planted tree, and before he had time to think of 
saving it, the cross fell from his hands, glided slowly down 
the bank and disappeared in the muddy waters of the pool. 

All the people, following the example of the unfortunate 
' priest, fell on their knees, their eyes fixed on the spot in 
the water where the cross had disappeared. 

The dam was at once opened so that the water should 
not carry the sacred relic away, and every one waited 
for several hours. At the end of that time, to the delight 
of all, just as the last water was disappearing through the 
dam, the cross was seen. And by the side of the cross 
was the statue — the famous silver statue of St. John. 

A cry of joy rang through the air; the cross and the 
statue were taken up, and it was then that the disap- 
pearance of the left arm was discovered. The thieves, 
whilst waiting for an opportunity of conveying the 
statue to a safe place, had broken off this arm, which 
has never been found. 

The people, singing psalms and hymns of thanksgiving 
as they went along, repaired to the church, in order to 
replace the venerated statue on the pedestal which for 
the last week had been deprived of its sacred burden. 



EARLY YOUTH ii 

Just as the last individual was entering the church a 
part of the archway over the door gave way, fell straight 
on the shoulder of a peasant and cut off his left arm. 

The crowd immediately surrounded the wretched man, 
yelling : " He's the thief ! He's the thief ! St. John has 
punished him by cutting off his arm ! " 

There was a terrible rush from all sides. The people 
attacked the peasant and in a moment his clothes were 
all in shreds. They were about to drag him along and 
hurl him into the pool without having asked him 
a question, or without even hesitating as to whether 
or not he were the real author of the theft, when the 
old priest interfered. 

"I, alone, have the right to command here," he said. 
** Do not touch that man." 

The crowd fell back a little and the priest continued: 
"You are in my church," he said, addressing himself to 
the peasant, "and this is an inviolable and sacred place. 
No one has a right to touch you here. Stay inside the 
church and do not leave it, for once outside you belong 
to human justice." 

And the mutilated peasant remained there. He was 
in the church all day and all night, and he was still there 
the following day when I left Grunberg. 

Five years later, when my voyage through Europe was 
accomplished, as I passed through Grunberg on my way 
to my native village, I saw, at the door of St. John's 
Church, an old man who had lost his left arm. He was 
on his knees at the threshold of the sanctuary, which 
he had never dared to leave, lest he should be torn to 
pieces by the people. 

This incident shows the superstition which then reigned 



12 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

in certain Austrian provinces. The following episode 
will show the fanaticism which was dominant. 

One evening after a long journey I reached, with my 
travelling companion, the Croatian frontier. A drear}^- 
looking rough road stretched as far as the eye could see 
alongside the mountain, and poles were placed on the 
roadside at intervals, just as in France the telegraph 
poles are seen forming a straight line along the banks of 
a road. 

At the top of these poles human heads had been fixed, 
and I shuddered with horror on discovering that as far as 
one could see there were these poles and these heads. 
There had been a revolt the week before, and the Governor 
of the district, who had proved victorious, had decided 
to make an example and to inspire the population with 
wholesome fear. 

This Governor I can see distinctly now. I was dining 
that evening with my tutor in a wretched little inn, on 
the very borders of the frontier, when he came back from 
his expedition. He was a sort of bashi-bazouk, with 
a hooked nose, long, fair mustache, and a face with a 
hard expression. He had three escorts, the com- 
manders of each of which appeared to hate each other. 

I could not resist asking him, later on, when he was 
sitting next to me at table, why he had three escorts. 

"The first one," he answered, "keeps watch on the 
second, and the third prevents the other two from coming 
to any understanding with each other." This will give 
an idea of the social position of a governor of Croatia in 
the first half of the last century. 

After supper, while the Governor was smoking a long 
pipe and the officers of the escort were playing at dice, 



EARLY YOUTH 13 

we heard, outside, issuing from the darkness, a dismal cry 
followed by shouts, disputes and fighting. The officers 
left their dice, and the Governor, mechanically, put his 
hand to his belt, from which his sword was hanging. 

Upon inquiry we found it was nothing of importance; 
merely a woman, a kind of fortune-teller, who was going 
along the road when the bashi-bazouks of the escort 
had set upon her. The Governor ordered them to bring 
her in so that she could tell our fortunes. We each of 
us showed her our hand and she proceeded to foretell the 
future. I remember the scene with the most astonishing 
distinctness. In the smoky room with its low ceiling, 
near to the fire, which was nearly out, the poor creature 
was intent on the lines of our palms, and in a slow, monot- 
onous voice she told us her rigmarole. 

When she came to mine, though, she suddenly became 
more animated, and her dull eyes lighted up a little. 

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "I've never seen a hand like 
yours. There's a fine fate in store for you." 

"What is it?" I asked. 

"You'll sit down with kings and have princes at your 
table." She did not tell me any more, but that was 
quite enough, and all night long I dreamed of nothing 
but conquests and kingdoms. I tried to imagine all the 
situations which would allow me to sit down with 
sovereigns, but I never thought of the only one which 
could ever enable the prophecy to come true. 

This voyage was to last five years, and five years it 
lasted. I went through Germany, Russia, Austria, Italy 
and Switzerland. The most tragic part of it was the 
return home. 



14 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

I was just twenty years of age, and when I approached 
my native village all the memories of my childhood 
crowded to my mind. One learns a great many things 
in a five-years' journey through the world, and one for- 
gets much also very quickly. Suddenly, at a turn in the 
road, flanked by the mountain, the Chateau of Blowksy 
came in sight, and I do not know how it was, but as 
soon as I saw its old, cracked fagade, so gloomy and 
dismal-looking, as soon as I glanced at its dark, mys- 
terious tower, a sort of presentiment took possession 
of me. 

I hurried on and soon reached the park. It seemed 
to me that everything looked neglected and rather de- 
serted. The grass was long, and the meadows appeared 
to be imtended. I pushed the door open, and a cry 
rang through the house. It was my mother. 

"Where is father?" I asked anxiously. 

"Here he is," she replied; and, seated by the fire in the 
large dining-room, I saw him, but he was so changed that I 
scarcely recognised him. 

When the first excitement of my arrival was over he 
began to question me. 

"Did not you see any one before you reached the 
house?" he asked. 

"No one," I replied. 

"And you do not know all that has happened here since 
you left?" 

"I know nothing," I answered. 

My father's voice trembled slightly as he told me. 
It was a very ordinary, every-day story. The fortune 
of the whole family was lost. A notary with whom the 
greater part of our money had been left had risked it 



EARLY YOUTH 15 

in speculations which had turned out badly, and to sum 
up the matter briefly, we were ruined. 

"You'll have to work for your living," said my father 
in conclusion. I do not know why, but the thought of 
the gypsy woman whom I had seen at the Croatian 
frontier suddenly crossed my mind, and I remembered 
her prediction. I did not appear at all discouraged; 
on the contrary, I smiled as I answered my father. 

"All right," I said, "don't you worry yourself about 
me. I shall be able to earn a living." 

"What do you think of doing?" he asked. 

"I shall start to-morrow for France, and from there go 
to America. A year ago, when I was in Genoa, I made 
the acquaintance of one of the leading industrial men of 
Ohio. He offered me a situation in a big agricultural 
affair out there. I refused, but I shall go to him now, 
and I am certain he will give me employment." 

"That's right," said my father; "I see that you have 
plenty of determination." The evening, however, was 
very sad, and that night was the last I spent in my father's 
house. Life was before me, full of chance and unexpected 
things. I did not fear anything, but bravely decided to 
venture forth. The farewell moment was even more sad 
than the evening had been. My mother was in tears, 
and my father, who was very pale, stood on the terrace 
until I was out of sight. 

"Good-by," I said, and my last words were, "Perhaps 
you will never see me again, but I hope you will hear 
something about me." 

And I plunged into the unknown — into life, 

A few weeks later I arrived at Anglers, in France, on 



i6 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

the banks of the Loire, on my way to Havre, where I 
intended to embark for America. 

I travelled in what the French call a "diligence," 
which was merely a horrible carriage, badly built, badly 
appointed, and with wretched horses. If modern 
civilisation had done nothing but give us railways 
instead of the diligence, it would deserve the gratitude 
of all human beings — I mean, of course, of all htmian 
beings who travel. 

My particular diligence went along that wonderful 
and admirable road which all English and Americans 
who have visited France know so well, and which skirts 
the bank of the Loire. It started from Tours, passed 
through Anglers, and was to go on to Nantes. At 
Nantes I intended travelling by water to Havre, where 
I hoped to embark for the United States. 

As we entered the chief street of Anglers some- 
thing occurred which was destined to influence my 
whole career. This was the second incident which 
decided my fate in life. The first was the wrong road 
which the gypsies, who had kidnapped me, took to 
cross the river. This second incident happened in 
driving over the paving-stones of Anglers when the 
diligence gave such jolts that the stem of my pipe 
broke between my teeth. 

My first care in getting out of the conveyance was, of 
course, to rush to a shop for a new stem. I had scarcely 
finished this most prosaic transaction when, on leaving the 
shop, I knocked up against a tall, slight man, with hair 
just turning gray, who happened to be coming in. I 
apologised, but the gentleman, after gazing at me intently, 
suddenly exclaimed: 



EARLY YOUTH 17 

"Why, upon my word, I think I recognise you. Are 
you not young Blowitz?" 

"Certainly." 

"Don't you remember me?" 

"Not at all." 

"I saw you five or six years ago at your father's 
chateau. I am Coimt Kolowrath, an old friend of your 
family." 

I remembered now having seen the Count in days 
gone by, and I recognised him. We talked together a few 
minutes, and I told him the sad events that had taken 
place at our home in Bohemia. He took the greatest 
interest in my story, and insisted on my letting the 
diligence continue its journey without me, and delaying 
my departure for a day. He was only passing through 
Anglers and lived in Paris, where he was very intimate 
with all the political men of the day. 

The result of our meeting was that I did not start for 
America the next day, nor yet the day after, nor even 
the week after, but I went with him to Paris. 

Serious events were then taking place there. A 
republic — the Republic of 1848 — had succeeded the 
monarchy of King Louis Philippe. I was too much 
interested in all that was going on, too much taken up 
by this political fever, by this overthrowing of a govern- 
ment and by this destruction of old-established institu- 
tions, to think of going to America. I remained in 
Paris, and I obser\^ed what was happening around me. 

I must now make a confession to my readers. Nature, 
cities and countries have never had much attraction for 
me. The stone facades of houses, picture galleries, the 
sculpture of public buildings and monuments, the clever 



1 8 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

arrangement of gardens, all these things have very 
rarely captured my attention. That which appeals to me 
and which I am always searching for is the soul which 
is concealed behind the silent immobility of things — it is 
life and movement which interest me. I have spent hours 
contemplating a crowd, studying its agitation, taking 
note of its continual motion. And what life, what 
movement, what a crowd there was, there before me, in 
this Paris, which is the brain of one of the leading countries 
of the world, and toward which came ebbing all the 
passions, all the anger, all the aspirations of a whole 
race and of a whole nation ! 

Count Kolowrath did not abandon me, but introduced 
me to some of the influential French persons with whom 
he was on friendly terms. Among the number were 
M. Thiers and M. de Falloux, the latter of whom was 
destined to have such an admirable career as a statesman, 
and who was the veritable organiser of Public Instruction 
in France. M. de Falloux was very curious about men 
and things in foreign lands; he always talked willingly 
with me, and he invited me to private literary gatherings, 
at which lectures were given on the most varied subjects. 
One day I received from M. de Falloux an invitation card 

on which were the following words : " M " (a name 

which I have forgotten) "will speak on literature in 
Germany and Provence." I went to this soiree and, on 
arriving, I found M. de Falloux, usually so calm and so 
reserved, in a great state of excitement and nervousness. 

I inquired what was the matter. 

M. de Falloux told me that his lecturer had not yet 
arrived and that he feared he would not now come. 

"I am very much annoyed," he said, "as several of 



EARLY YOUTH 19 

my guests had been looking forward to hearing him 
discuss this question, and I fear they will be disappointed." 

An idea flashed through my mind. "Why not get 
some one immediately to take the lecturer's place?" 
I suggested. 

"That would not be very easy," replied M. de 
Falloux. 

"Will you let me try?" I asked. "I know very little 
about Provence, or, to speak frankly, I don't know 
anything at all, but I am very well up in German literature 
and I would do my utmost not to bore your guests." 

M. de Falloux smiled ; he was very much amused. 

"Agreed," he said, " and I am very much obliged." 

Five minutes later, with plenty of assurance, I was 
discussing German literature and its connection with the 
literature of Provence. I compared, quoted and analysed 
examples. I was witty, evidently, for my audience 
laughed a great deal; and I was even eloquent, for I 
was applauded. 

When I had finished a lady approached me and in the 
most affected way said: "Oh, monsieur, there are, 
perhaps, several things to find fault with in what you say 
about German literature, but all that you said about 
the literature of Provence was perfect. One can see 
how thoroughly you know that country." 

M. de Falloux, who was standing near, burst 
out laughing, and then, shaking hands, thanked me 
heartily and, drawing me aside, said: "What an 
admirable lecturer on foreign literature you would 
make!" 

"If ever you become Minister," I answered, "I will 
take you at your word, and ask you for a professorship." 



20 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

"Agreed," he said; "yours shall be the first appoint- 
ment I make." 

And it happened as he had said, for M. de Falloux, 
on becoming Minister of Public Instruction, appointed 
the yoimg man, who had been seen having his pipe 
mended in one of the shops of Anglers, to a professorship 
of foreign literature in that very city. 

I was not destined to stay very long in Anglers, though, 
nor in the University. In 1856 I was appointed to the 
chair of foreign literature at Marseilles. It was there that 
I met the lady who became my wife, and who, as the 
companion of my life for thirty -five years, was with me 
always, through good and through evil days. She was 
French, and her father, M. Amaud d'Agnel had been 
Paymaster in the Navy; her uncle on her father's side 
had been a Brigadier. Her mother belonged to an old 
aristocratic family of the Var, and her maternal imcle was 
connected with the Bourbon family. 

Our marriage took place in 1858, and it was not until 
twelve years later that I embraced the career which was 
to be the veritable passion of my life. 

Some of these twelve years were spent in commercial 
affairs, for I had always had the mania of believing 
myself very clever in mechanics. I had invented a 
machine for combing flax at great speed. I began by 
buying a workshop large enough to hold the machine, 
and the next thing I did was to have the said machine 
constructed, at great expense. 

When everything was ready I gave a big fete, in 
order to celebrate the success of my invention. 
Every one came for miles rotmd, and more than a 
thousand persons were present. They all congratulated 




MADAME DE BLOWITZ 
From a photograph inide during the last year of her Ufe 



EARLY YOUTH 21 

me, drank champagne, looked at the machine, and 
admired it. 

When the reception was over, the guests gone and the 
champagne glasses empty, I thought the moment had 
arrived for trying the machine and setting it in motion. 

As everything was ready and the steam up, I said 
to the engineer: "Go!" and I myself turned the 
tap which was to set it in motion. There was imme- 
diately a most formidable detonation. Everything 
blew up in the air, the window panes were all broken, 
and I was thrown violently down, whilst a great iron 
bolt struck my forehead. 

I was picked up for dead, and it was owing to my 
wife's nursing that I was able to get about again three 
weeks later, cured of my wound, and still more effectually 
cured of my industrial inventions. Never from that time 
forth have I attempted to set any machinery in motion. 

It is with this incident that my reminiscences of early 
youth come to an end. It has required a certain effort 
on my part to recall them, first, because I do not care 
to dwell on those far-olf days of the past, and, secondly, 
because I have been obliged to put myself constantly in 
the foreground, instead of speaking about the events 
with which I have been connected and the men with 
whom I have come in contact. 

In my next chapter I shall endeavour to retrace some 
of these events, and describe some of these men, who, 
one and all, belong to the history of the nineteenth 
century. 

But, such as they are, without order and without 
coherence, the few lines I have written may at least have 
a certain philosophical value. They will show that great 



22 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

results may sometimes spring from very slight causes, j 

and that in order to become a journalist of note in the J 

world very little is often all that is required— just j 

a pipe to break at the right moment on a journey. i 



CHAPTER II 
How I Became a Journalist 

In 1869, the second French Empire was beginning to 
show signs of yielding to the numerous and combined 
assaults of the liberal opposition. When a throne has 
been seized by a bold stroke, when it has been retained by 
repression, when the hold over the country is dependent 
on the docile vote of the unthinking masses, there can 
be no abandonment of the absolute prerogatives the 
ruler has bestowed on himself. The slightest concession 
becomes a weapon in the hands of the assailant, and 
the autocratic fortress only remains impregnable so long 
as no breach can be made. 

In 1869 the torrent of the opposition had been dashing 
for seventeen years against the foundations of the Second 
Empire, and the attentive eye could already discover 
some of the breaches that were being made in the fortifica- 
tions which surrounded the throne of Napoleon III. At 
Paris, however, the central power remained under great 
illusions, and played with the fire of liberal reform. In 
the provinces, on the contrary, the representatives of 
the Government felt that their power was diminishing. 
They were constantly colliding with audacious oppo- 
nents, and in consequence of the opposition they met 
they became more overbearing, more tyrannical, and, 
for that very reason, more unpopular. From this 

23 



24 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

syllogistic circle there was no retreat or escape except 
by revolution or reaction. 

For many years I had now been living at Marseilles. 
I had married, as I told my readers in a preceding 
chapter, a lady, a native of the great southern French 
city. But at that time I was not yet naturalised, and I 
considered it almost a duty to stand aloof from the 
domestic politics of France. Nevertheless, as my marriage 
inevitably brought me into contact with certain persons, 
I was supposed by everybody to belong to the Legitimist 
party, at the time militant around me. 

The elections of 1869 were close at hand. It was 
apparent that the contest would be a violent one in the 
extreme. All sides were preparing for the fight. The 
opposition formed a league called "The Liberal Union," 
within which there was room made for the three parties 
— the Legitimists, the Orleanists, and the Democrats. 
The Government did what it could to strengthen its posi- 
tion. It reinforced its Prefects; it decorated with the 
Legion of Honour its chief political supporters, and 
dismissed auxiliaries of whom it was not sure. In the 
great centres it established newspapers to all appearances 
violently democratic, but the real purpose of which was to 
sow dissension among the parties forming the Liberal 
Union. 

During the day the editors or their staff wrote articles 
denouncing the Empire and the Royalist party. At 
night these same journalists repaired to the Prefectures 
to receive their instructions. 

Such was the state of affairs throughout France and 
more especially at Marseilles. In that city the candi- 
dature of M. de Lesseps, in opposition to M. Thiers and 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 25 

M. Gambetta, was very popular. Gambetta and his 
pretensions were made the subject of endless jokes and 
laughter on the part of the pseudo-democratic official 
press. M. de Lessep's candidature was represented as 
quite independent. Therein resided his only chance 
of success, for if there had been a suspicion that it was 
official, his position would have been irremediably 
compromised. 

Strange to say, I was the man who almost unwittingly 
dealt the fatal blow to his chances. Even at this time of 
my life the uncontrollable desire to get at the bottom 
of sensational reports haunted me. While it was strongly 
suspected at Marseilles that M. de Lesseps was an official 
candidate, and while the Government was making every 
effort to prove the contrary, one of my friends had gone 
to Egypt. I kept up a correspondence with him. In 
v/riting to me he recounted with much detail incidents 
which threw a strong light on the whole subject. An 
orderly officer of the Emperor had arrived in Egypt. 
A special train was placed at his disposal by Ismail 
Pasha. This officer lost no time in posting on to ]\I. de 
Lesseps. At the urgent request, and in compliance 
with an almost formal order, of the Emperor, the construc- 
tor of the Suez Canal, who, as such, had already become 
popular, consented to become a candidate for Marseilles. 

Without considering the consequences, I lost no time 
in communicating this information to one of my friends 
— ^the editor of a Legitimist newspaper. The news burst 
like a tempest on the public of Marseilles, and swept away 
in its irresistible whirl the candidature of M. de Lesseps. 

The very next day the Socialist newspaper, in obedience 
to orders, made an incredibly violent attack on me. I 



2 6 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

was terrified at what I had done. I was somewliat in the 
position of an elephant from whose back a cannon has been 
discharged, and which first feels the shock without know- 
ing whence it comes. I was a foreigner without protection, 
at the mercy of a Government still feared. My friends 
begged me to take no notice of the abominable calumnies 
directed against me by the sham-democratic newspaper, 
which for years afterward was the source of the abuse 
poured upon me. I was simple-minded enough to bring 
an action against it in the law courts. I won my case, 
but by that time the newspaper had ceased to appear, and 
the editor, as a reward for his electioneering services, 
had obtained the post of Sub-Prefect in an out-of-the-way 
district of the Basses-Alpes. 

In the election, M. de Lesseps had the support of a 
wretched minority; and it was M. Gambetta who, to the 
surprise of everybody, was returned by a majority of two 
to one. 

He entered the Corps Legislatif triumphantly. The 
journal and its editor disappeared, but the defeated 
Prefect survived, and it was on me that he sought to 
avenge himself. 

In a long report, which I have since been able to peruse, 
he applied for my expulsion from France. Scarcely an 
hour after it was written he saw my wife in the street, 
and was not ashamed to hold out to her the very hand 
which had just signed that miserable denunciation. The 
same evening I was informed of the fact, and hurried off 
to Paris to ward off its consequences. 

M. Thiers, whom I had met very often on my arrival in 
France at the house of M. de Falloux and at Cotmt Kolow- 
rath's, took the matter in hand, and the demand for my 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 27 

expulsion was put aside. My friends advised, nay, 
besought me to leave Marseilles, and toward the end of 
1869 I followed their advice and retired to a small 
estate in the Drome, near Valence. 

Such was my first experience in journalism, and it 
might easily have caused me to abandon the career. 

I lived for some months in my retreat, and to pass the 
time I read a great deal, not only books but newspapers 
of France, Germany and northern Europe. I had nothing 
else to do. 

When the Hohenzollem question came up, I wrote 
regularly to M. Thiers, giving him the news which reached 
me. He continued to show me great good-will. I 
knew that since the hurried conclusion of peace between 
Prussia and Austria, in 1866, the Germans expected a 
conflict with France, and were preparing for it. I knew 
that the southern States of Germany were under the 
watchful and suspicious surveillance of Prussia, and I 
also knew that if there should be war the result would 
cruelly disappoint the hopes of France. I never ceased 
writing to this effect, and bringing facts confirming my 
opinions to the knowledge of M. Thiers, whose own 
experience had led him to similar conclusions. 

When the war broke out I contemplated with terror, 
from my retreat, the complete and fatal ignorance preva- 
lent in France, and the false feeling of security which 
was to be so promptly and terribly dispelled. 

One piece of disastrous news rapidly followed another — 
Reichshofen; Spiekem; the abandonment of the first 
lines of defense; the retreat; the admitted want of food, 
anus and supplies; the telegrams of MacMahon, "I am 
defeated; send me, supplies"; and lastly, the astounding 



28 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

despatch from Napoleon III.: "We have been sur- 
prised in the very act of forming. The enemy had also 
mitrailleuses." All this left no doubt as to the future 
toward which France was drifting. 

On September 2nd came the disaster of Sedan, immedi- 
ately followed by the fall of the Empire. 

The Republic was proclaimed. 

i\.s soon as the new regime began to work I applied for 
my naturalisation papers. My request was complied with. 
Some weeks later I became a French citizen, and I 
received, at the time, a letter from M. Adolphe Cremieux, 
then Minister of Justice, which ran as follows : 

"Your application for naturalisation, in the midst of 
our great disasters appears to me as the signal of a new 
life for us. A country which, in the midst of such 
catastrophes, recruits citizens like you is not to be 
despaired of." 

As always happens, having been persecuted by the 
Empire, I was now ranked in the now dominant party, 
and those who had stood aloof from me now showed 
a great desire to be on better terms with me. 

I returned to Marseilles. 

I found that city in a lamentable and grotesque state 
of anarchy. Numerous associations had been hastily 
formed under the pretext of making the Germans with- 
draw from France. One of the leaders had proclaimed 
himself Commissary of the Government. He had 
recruited into a noisy and discontented, but purely 
home-abiding guard, all the "foaming dregs" of Christo- 
phanes. From that element of roughs, rowdies, loafers, 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 29 

he drew the pretorian group who surrounded him and 
by means of whom he terrorised the city. 

Toward the latter days of March, 1871, the situation 
became alarming. The Commune was proclaimed on 
the 23rd, five days after its official announcement in Paris. 
A grotesque and lamentable state of anarchy prevailed. 
The revolutionary forces took possession of the Prefecture. 

The enemies of order flocked in from foreign countries, 
and terrorists from all parts of the world seemed to have 
congregated in the town. 

As I had now become a naturalised Frenchman, I felt 
it my duty to assist my adopted country as well as I 
could, and I offered my services to General Espivent de 
la Villeboisnet, who had been entrusted with the difficult 
task of restoring order. 

The post and telegraph office had been seized by the 
Revolutionists. They suppressed every suspected letter; 
they retained every telegram which might have informed 
the regular Government at Versailles of the frightful 
state of affairs prevailing in the great southern city. 

I had just let a flat, in a house belonging to my wife, 
to the Eastern Telegraph Company, which had a special 
wire to Oran. I had a private interview with the local 
manager of the Eastern Telegraph Company, and obtained 
from him permission to make a junction between his wire 
and that of the Versailles Government. Then one 
night, when the insurgent officials at the Marseilles 
post-office thought they had entire control of the wires, 
I threw a ladder from a neighbouring house, reached by 
the roofs the offices of the Eastern Telegraph Company, 
and opened a secret and direct communication with the 
outside world. 



30 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

The Lyons office replied to me, and put me in communi- 
cation with Versailles. 

I immediately informed the Government of the doings 
of the Communists. 

M. Thiers fully realised the danger. If the Commune 
triumphed in Marseilles, the whole of the south of France 
would rise against his Government. 

Accordingly, in reply to my first telegram, M. Thiers 
gave orders to the effect that General Espivent de la 
Villeboisnet must at any price restore order in the town. 

Two days later, on April 5th, the regular troops, which 
had been concentrated at Aubagne, near Marseilles, burst 
into the town and recaptured the Prefecture, which had 
become the headquarters of the insurgents. 

I need not enter here into the details of that terrible 
day. Everybody did his duty, and I was, I trust, no 
exception to the rule. Be this as it may, twenty-four 
hours later the battle was won, and the Commune of 
Marseilles was extinguished. 

General Espivent and my comrades of the loyal 
National Guard appointed me to report personally to 
M. Thiers, at Versailles, what had taken place, as, having 
been an eye-witness, I could narrate the facts better 
than any one else. Accordingly on April 6th I set out 
for Versailles. 

On my arriving there, after informing M. Barth61emy 
Saint-Hilaire, then General Secretary of the Government, 
of the mission entrusted to me, he made an appointment 
with me at his residence for the following morning. He 
then took me at once to M. Thiers. 

The President of the Republic was in a very simply 
furnished room. In one of the corners was a narrow, 



li 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 31 

low camp-bed, covered with brown leather. The floor 
was littered with maps; and M. Thiers was on his knees 
poring over a plan of Paris, 

He looked up and, on recognising me, said without 
rising: "Oh, yes, you have come from Marseilles; but I 
have no time at present to hear your report. You must 
go and see Calmon." And he became again engrossed 
in the map of Paris. 

I therefore saw M. Calmon, Under-Secretary at the 
Ministry of the Interior. He listened rather heedlessly 
to what I said, for he cared much less to know those who 
had done their duty than the men who had neglected 
it. I therefore cut short what I had intended telling and 
hurriedly left him. 

I was quite discouraged, I bitterly regretted having 
vainly undertaken a long journey and exposed myself to 
such a disappointment, and I felt that my best course 
would be to return to Marseilles. 

Two days later I returned to take leave of M. Thiers. 
He came forward and welcomed me in a more friendly 
way. 

"My reception was not encouraging to you the other 
day," he said, "but I was then in the deepest anxiety. 
I thought all was lost. Now I know that we shall get over 
this trial. I feel more master of myself than I did the 
other day, and I am ready to hear what you have to 
tell me. I am aware of the great services you have 
rendered us. I have received letters from friends at 
Marseilles which leave no doubt as to that." 

He then put a number of questions to me, and I de- 
scribed to him the events that had taken place, both in 
their burlesque and in their gloomy aspects. He seemed 



32 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

to be very much interested in my narrative, and when I 
had finished he asked me : 

"Well, what are you going to do now?" 

"I have come, Monsieur le President, to bid you fare- 
well. I am going home to-morrow, as I have left my 
family in the South." 

"Do not go away," he said briskly. "Stay here a 
little longer. Come again and tell me what you are 
doing. I will soon let you know in what way you can 
be useful to us." 

I yielded to M. Thiers's desire. 

Some days later I was able to take a step which had 
no small influence on my destiny. The siege of Paris, by 
the Versailles troops, was nearing its end. I had gone to 
Brimborion to see the batteries shelling the Communists. 
In a casemate near the batteries a young American 
lady was looking through a loophole. We discussed the 
events which were taking place, and in the midst of our 
conversation, on looking again through the hole, the 
young lady exclaimed : 

"What is this? Look here! Some one is waving a 
white flag over the ramparts." 

I took up my glasses and saw that a white flag was 
being waved violently and that there was a great stir 
among the soldiers encamped all about the Seine, while 
large columns were marching forward. 

The demon of journalism took hold of me. I turned to 
the young American lady (whom I have never since met) 
and said to her: "Please remain here and be good 
enough to notice attentively all that happens. I shall 
be back in half an hour. ' ' 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 37, 

I left the casemate and rushed to the Sevres road, 
where I had left my cab. I said to the driver, "To the 
Versailles Prefecture as fast as you can." 

I had the good luck to arrive in the courtyard of the 
Prefecture at the very moment M. Thiers was taking his 
daily "constitutional." 

I ran up to him exclaiming, "Monsieur le President, 
the troops are entering Paris." 

M. Thiers gave a sudden start. "Where do you come 
from?" he asked. 

"From Brimborion. A man is waving a white flag 
on the ramparts, and the troops are now moving 
onward." 

Ten minutes afterward M. Thiers was leaving Versailles 
in a carriage on the road to Paris. 

Some days later he sent for me and made me tell in 
detail all that had occurred. He was very much in- 
terested and he said : 

"It is a latest news department that would best suit 
you. In a day or two I think I shall be able to tell you 
something about your future career." 

When I saw him again he told me he was thinking 
of giving me a consulate. 

" It will only be for a start," he said. " I am going to 
send yoti to Riga as Consul-General, but depend upon it, 
you will not remain there long." 

I concluded that the affair was settled, and began to 
study the situation of Riga. But M. Thiers had reckoned 
without his host. M. Meurand was then at the nend of 
the French Foreign Office. He jealously guarded the 
consular fortress against the invasion of any outsider, 
and when M. Thiers proposed me for the post at Riga, 



34 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

M. Meurand did not openly oppose him, but postponed 
the appointment. Later on he proposed to M. Thiers 
to send me to Rustchuk. M. Thiers refused and two 
months passed by, M. Thiers insisting all the time upon 
my being sent to Riga, and M. Meurand persisting in his 
idea of sending me to Rustchuk. I was quite disheartened. 

A few weeks later, however, some consolation was 
afforded me. It came about as follows : One morning a 
friend of mine came in great haste to my house. He said : 

"Do you know you have been decorated for having 
rendered exceptional services?" 

The Official Journal, in fact, after announcing my 
nomination, used the following words: "Gave evidence 
of the most disinterested devotion to the cause of 
order — exposed himself to the greatest danger on the 
4th of April in conveying the orders that had been 
entrusted to him." 

I take this opportunity of reproducing the above 
words, for they show exactly why my decoration was 
granted. Let them be remembered by those who, 
when I am no more, may have to defend my memory, 
should it ever be attacked. 

As soon as communications with Paris had been opened 
I went into the town. I made several calls, but one of my 
principal visits was for my old and dear friend, Mr. 
Frederick Marshall, whose eldest daughter was at the 
time very ill. Of her let me say one word. She was a 
girl of fifteen, of high spirits, and of bright and poetic 
beauty, with qualities of heart and soul which made her 
too good for this commonplace world. 

It was at this house I met, for the first time, Laurence 
Oliphant, then the special correspondent of the Times 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 35 

Sitting with him for hours near the couch of the sick 
girl, I soon yielded to the charm which Oliphant inspired 
in all who had the good fortune to have any intercourse 
with him. He had come to France in compliance with an 
order from the head of the sect to which he then belonged, 
the " Brethren of the New Life. " He fulfilled his mission 
with the ardent docility of a well-initiated and sincere 
disciple, and from the somewhat lofty standpoint of a man 
who had drunk too deeply of the sweets of life not to 
despise them. His observations were sharp and severe, 
but his political doctrines were of unswerving rectitude, 
and his judgments on men and things were both caustic 
and infallible. His letters in the Times were read with 
avidity, combining as they did accurate observation with 
a lively style. This, at all events, is what I have heard, 
for I never read them myself. 

On July 2ist — the date is an historical one for me — my 
dear friend, Mr. Frederick Marshall, came and told me : 
"Something has just happened which may interest you. 
Mr. Hardman, who is the colleague of Laurence Oliphant, 
the special correspondent of the Times, has just left 
Paris and will not return for a fortnight. Oliphant is 
very much inconvenienced. He cannot be both at 
Versailles and Paris, and he is looking out for some one 
who could at least do a part of Hardman's work. I 
thought the post would suit you, as you see M. Thiers 
daily, and you complain of not having enough to do." 

" You are right," I replied. " I not only like your pro- 
posal, but you are doing me a real favour, for in this way 
I can see M. Thiers without the unpleasant necessity of 
reminding him of his promises." 

Marshall lost no time in conveying my reply to Oliphant, 



36 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

who was much pleased. We all three met. Then 
Oliphant, who had not yet broached the subject to 
me, explained to me the duties discharged by Hard- 
man and requested me to begin the following day. I 
listened attentively to what he said, but he saw that I 
felt some difficulty which I did not venture to express. 

Finally he said: "You seem to hesitate. Did you 
expect me to speak about the remuneration ?" 

"Not at all," I promptly replied. "In this case it is 
not a question of money, I can assure you ; it is something 
more embarrassing. Before beginning I should like to 
see a copy of the Times'' 

Both looked at me in amazement. 

"What?" exclaimed Oliphant, "you do not know the 
Times f 

"Excuse me," I replied, "I know the Times very well. 
I know quite well what it is. I have a friend at Marseilles 
who concludes all his political discussions with the words : 
' There can be no question about that ; the Times says so.' 
The phrase has become proverbial among his friends. 
But I have long been living in the somewhat remote 
southern departments and I have never seen a copy of 
the paper." 

Oliphant broke into loud laughter. He went out of 
the room and came back with a copy of the Times, con- 
taining some twenty pages, which he spread out on the 
floor, covering the best part of the carpet with it. I was 
dumbfounded. 

"A friend of mine," I said, "always told me I ou^jht to 
write in a roomy daily paper. I think that size would 
satisfy him." 

Mr. Oliphant then explained to me the mechanism of 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 37 

the paper — the telegrams; the leaders; the record of 
Parliamentary proceedings; the law and police reports; 
the money market and commercial intelligence; the 
foreign correspondence; the letters to the editor; the 
court circular and fashionable news; the reports and 
speeches out of Parliament and the sermons by eminent 
preachers; the paragraphs; the literary, dramatic, 
musical and artistic criticisms; the column of births, 
deaths and marriages; the meteorological reports and 
storm warnings; the sporting news, including horse- 
races, yachting, cricket matches, etc. ; the articles on 
geographical discoveries and on scientific questions; 
and the reviews of important books. 

I was shown the long, compact columns of advertise- 
ments, all carefully scrutinised, classified and arranged 
under headings, where supply and demand are brought 
into juxtaposition with the regularity of machine work; 
where no advertisement unworthy of the newspaper is 
at any price inserted, precautions being taken to insure 
the good faith of the advertiser. All this explained to me 
the success of the great English newspapers, how they 
came into possession of the vast resources at their disposal, 
and the benefits they confer on the people for whom they 
are at once a curb, a power, a stimulant and a glory. 
I was delighted to find employment, even for a time, 
on the greatest of such journals. 

The following day I went to Versailles. I found 
M. Thiers in a very irritable state of mind. He was 
indignant with all French political parties. He accused 
the Royalists of perfidy, the Republicans of ingratitude 
and the Bonapartists of imprudence. I left him without 
da.ring to speak of my new occupation, but on reflecting 



38 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

on what he had said I drew up a note which I sent to 
Mr. Oliphant. He was very much pleased with it. 

"A genuine hit," he said. "There is not a word to 
alter in it. You are a bom journalist." 

He then sent off my first telegram to the Times. The 
following afternoon, as I was walking along the boule- 
vards, I bought a copy of the Liberie. In the latest news 
I saw the telegram I had sent on the previous night under 
the words, "A telegram from Paris to the Times says." 
I experienced one of the strongest emotions I ever felt 
in my life. The power of the telegraph in its connection 
with journalism flashed upon me at that moment, and I 
felt I could turn it to account. I then resolved that I 
would remain in Paris and become a journalist. 

The day after the publication of my first telegram I 
went to see M, Thiers, not without apprehension. He 
was awaiting me with impatience. 

"Tell me," he said at once, "how it comes about that 
the Times, and after it all the French papers, were able 
to publish a conversation which I had with you when 
none else was present," 

All hesitation was out of the question, so I told him the 
truth immediately. It was a most dramatic surprise. 
He, too, saw at once the power he would gain in an 
indirect but striking manner by placing his ideas thus 
before the public mind. At the same time, I think he 
felt relieved at being able to discontinue his struggle with 
M. Meurand, who persisted in defending his position 
with the utmost tenacity. M, Thiers was not over- 
pleased when I told him that my appointment was 
temporary. 



J 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 39 

The conversation I had with him supplied me with 
matter for a new telegram and for a fresh and no less 
admirable letter by Oliphant, and it was in this way that 
we were able to carry on our joint work. Some days 
afterward I asked permission from M. Thiers to visit 
with Oliphant the prisons in which the Communists were 
confined. M. Thiers gladly granted the permission. 

I must explain that Mr. Hardman, carried away by 
his feelings and without taking into consideration the 
frightful difficulties the Government of Versailles had 
to overcome, had, hastily and in perfect good faith, 
given an account in his letters of these temporary and 
defective makeshift buildings, which had produced a 
deep impression on public opinion all over Europe. M. 
Thiers was delighted to see us set right the errors which 
had found their way into these letters. Accompanied 
by Colonel Gaillard, who at that time assisted General 
Appert, we went through the prisons of the Orangerie, 
the Chantiers, and the camp of Satory, where the 
Communists were confined. 

General Appert, who afterward discharged the duties 
of Russian Ambassador in a way which gained for him 
general esteem, was at that time entrusted with the 
organisation and direction of the temporary prisons. 
He displayed in this capacity all the humanity com- 
patible with the circumstances. The events had taken 
everybody by surprise. Each day that passed between 
the 2ist and the 26th of May, the incendiary fires, the 
massacres and the fusillades — the most horrible episode 
in modern history — had sent swarms of captives to 
Versailles. It had been impossible to do otherwise than 
huddle them together. 



40 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

When we visited the prison the Commune was not 
finished. It appeared to us hideous, grotesque and 
sublime. In the prisons of the Chantiers we saw a 
young woman squatting on the floor who attracted 
special attention. 

She was one of the most beautiful women I have ever 
seen. Her long black tresses fell over her bare shoulders, 
and as she had torn her dress to shreds, not to wear the 
clothes of the "accursed Versaillaise, " one could see her 
naked body through the rents. She was tall and graceful, 
and on the approach of visitors she reared her head 
proudly, like a war-horse about to neigh. Her bright 
eyes glistened; a blush overspread her face. She com- 
pressed her lips, ground her teeth, and burst into a shrill, 
defiant, vindictive laugh when she recognised the officer 
of the prison who accompanied us. In the last struggle 
of the Commune she had been fighting at the side of 
her lover. She had seen him fall and, armed with a 
dagger, had rushed upon the Captain who had just taken 
the barricade and furiously stabbed him, plunging her 
weapon again and again into her victim. Before she 
could be removed from his body she had cut, bitten and 
torn it with all the fury of a hyena. She was taken to 
the prison covered with blood, which she had dabbled 
over her body and clothes. She had to be bound and 
gagged before she would allow the blood to be washed 
off. Hideous ! 

At Satory, while we were passing through the camp, 
one of the prisoners, jauntily and with a smile on his face, 
came up to Colonel Gaillard. I never saw a more ridicu- 
lous caricature. He was thin, bony and narrow-should- 
ered. His head was compressed, and his features looked 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 41 

as if they had not been meant for the same face. He 
was in rags, but he wore, like a Castilian beggar, soiled 
linen — on which it would have been necessary to write, 
"This is a shirt" — a long, loose overcoat, and a dilapi- 
dated tall hat. He was a student nicknamed "Pipe-en- 
Bois," who had discharged the duties of secretary to the 
Delegate of Foreign Affairs. On one occasion he had 
offered a pot of beer to Lord Lyons, to pass the time 
while waiting in the Grand Salon d'Attente at the 
Quai d'Orsay. The offer had not been accepted, but 
had been acknowledged with a smile. He came up 
to Colonel Gaillard. 

"They tell me. Colonel," he said, "that we are to be 
taken down to be called as witnesses before the court- 
martial. Can you inform me how long we shall be 
kept there?" 

"I am sorry I cannot, as I do not know," was the 
Colonel's courteous reply. 

"Excuse the liberty I took," continued Pipe-en-Bois, 
drawing together his overcoat; "it was only to know 
what linen would be required." 

Grotesque ! 

The Commune was also sublime. A prisoner, a man, had 
been captured with arms in his hands, was imprisoned 
and condemned to death. His wife made heroic efforts 
to save him, and succeeded in securing the sympathy of 
a man who had influence in those times. Her husband 
was saved from capital pimishment, and was condemned 
to transportation. Left alone and abandoned, without 
resources, she had formed an intimacy with the man 
who had saved her husband. After living for years with 
this lover, to whom she was deeply attached, she 



42 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

besought him to apply for a pardon for her husband. 
Although he felt that he was destroying her happiness 
and his own, he did so. The husband returned full of 
love for the wife who had saved him from execution and 
procured his liberation. On the way home, however, he 
learned the truth. He changed his name, disappeared, 
and lived in hiding for many years. Then, when divorce 
became possible in France, he wrote to his wife : "Apply 
for a divorce from me ; I will do all I can to secure one 
for you. Marry him and be happy." 

Sublime ! 

Oliphant wrote admirable letters on this visit, in which 
he gave a most accurate description of what he saw, 
and they produced a great impression. The Times 
then asked permission to send Mr. Charles Austin, a clever 
and humorous writer, to the fortified prisons in the 
south of France as special correspondent, and his com- 
munications to the paper completely rectified the wrong 
impressions that had prevailed with respect to the treat- 
ment of the French political prisoners. 

It was just at the time when my new occupation had 
the greatest charm for me that Mr, Hardman returned 
to his duties. It was a hard blow for me to bear. 

M. Thiers thought of applying on my behalf to the 
Times. He was now accustomed to my visits. I was 
one of the political elements which gravitated around 
him. He was imwilling that any change should be 
made. Oliphant, however, objected to his intervention. 
He said it would be a sure way of losing all chance of 
admission on the staff of the paper. M. Thiers accord- 
ingly abandoned his scheme. 

Riga, this eternal phantom of the snowy North, came 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 43 

once more to the front. This time M. Thiers promised 
formally to hand me my letter of appointment within 
eight days. Riga ! It appeared to me now a place of 
exile. 

I had drunk too deeply of the sweets of a life the very 
straggles of vv^hich were full of delight. I clung to it. I 
made some advances to the Paris newspapers. I soon 
felt that to become a French journalist, talent, even if 
one has it, does not suffice. Many other qualities are nec- 
essary, and these I did not possess. Extreme suppleness, 
readiness in understanding the public taste and in con- 
forming to it, are indispensable in a French editor. He 
must possess, besides, the art of repelling a public adver- 
sary by alarming the individual, skill to command in- 
fluence by asserting the possession of it, a natural way 
of using the editorial "we" without a smile, a perfection 
of style which throws into the shade the interest of the 
facts and the skill with which they are grouped, a bril- 
liancy of detail which dazzles and distracts attention, 
something which is at once aggressive, bold and skeptical. 
All these gifts the French newspaperman possesses 
instinctively, and brings them to perfection by living in 
a special milieu. I felt that I was destitute of all 
these qualifications, without which no one can reach an 
eminent position on the French press. Sadly, then, I 
determined on the course I should take. I resolved 
to see M. Thiers in the course of the day, and to 
remind him of the letter of appointment he had 
formally promised to obtain for me. 

Breakfast was just over when suddenly Oliphant made 
his appearance. He had a telegram in his hand. 

"Hardman," he said, "was called back the day 



44 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

before yesterday. He will not return to Paris, I 
telegraphed yesterday to the Times, and I have this 
moment received a reply. A proposal is made to give 
you a permanent appointment. If you accept, you will 
remain in the meantime with me ; and the other matters 
can easily be arranged." 

My satisfaction was so apparent that I had no need to 
reply. I set out for Versailles, where I announced to 
M. Thiers that Mr. Hardman had again left, and that 
I was once more to take his place. He told me my ap- 
pointment to Riga was ready, and that he would delay its 
announcement till he heard from me again, for I did not 
inform him that I was permanently engaged by the Times. 

I must confess that for a long time I concealed the fact 
from him, and that frequently, by asking for my appoint- 
ment to Riga, I overcame the difficulties that arose 
between him and me. When he became aware of the 
truth, he, in turn, said nothing of it to me, but I felt that 
"Riga" was of no more use. Fortunately at this time 
I had multiplied my sources of information. The 
intercourse between M. Thiers and me was at times less 
cordial, for I had to give news which embarrassed him, 
instead of the one-sided information which he communi- 
cated to me to help his policy. 

Here is an instance. 

One evening M, Thiers, who had by this time taken 
up his abode at the Ely see, had a private reception. 
M. Timachief, the Russian Minister, was for a short 
time in earnest conversation with him. The President 
was evidently annoyed. I went to another part of the 
room not to overhear what was said. As I was leaving 
M. Thiers said to me : 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 45 

"The Russian Minister congratulated me yesterday 
morning on the discipline I have introduced into the 
Republican party. He said the European monarchic 
governments were much impressed by it," 

I did not for a moment call in question the accuracy 
of the statement, but it was in no respect consistent with 
the attitude of the two speakers I had seen in conversation. 
I accordingly resolved to wait a little before writing on 
the subject. As it happened, on making my way out 

of the palace I overtook Count , the Prefect of one 

of the chief French departments, who had stopped at 
the gate and was busy writing notes in the light of the 
gas lamp. I went up to him. I said : 

"My dear Prefect, the detectives will take us into 
custody. They will think you are making plans of the 
palace to carry out some plot." 

"Their imagination will bring them no reward," he 
said; " I was simply taking a note of some remarks made 
by M. Thiers, whom I found very indignant, and on 
what I consider very good grounds, too. It appears 
that M. Timachief, the Russian Minister, used strong 
language in speaking to him this evening about the revolu- 
tionary speech made at Romans by Gambetta, which 
he said would spread alarm in the European monarchies." 

After a moment's reflection he added, "I think it 
would be a service to everybody if you were to mention 
the fact." 

I remained with him for a few minutes, talking of 
general subjects ; but on leaving I lost no time in writing 
that M. Timachief, after having congratulated M. Thiers 
on the discipline he had introduced into the Republican 
party, had on the following night — that on which I 



46 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

wrote — protested strongly against the disquieting atti- 
tude it had assumed. 

I am going, for the benefit of yoimger joumaHsts, to 
give a hint which a good many of them whom I know 
would do well to bear in mind. When a man gives a 
correspondent an important piece of news, the latter 
should continue to remain with him for some time, but 
change the conversation, and not leave him until it 
has turned to something quite insignificant. If the cor- 
respondent takes his departure abruptly, a flash of caution 
will burst upon his informant. He will reflect rapidly, 
and will beg the journalist not to repeat what he has 
said till he sees him again. The information would 
be lost, and the correspondent would suffer annoyance 
that might have been avoided if he had heard nothing. 
A newspaper has no use for confidential communications 
it cannot transmit to its readers. 

Taking this view, I published my double information. 
An explosion followed. The Conservatives were delighted 
and set M. Thiers at defiance. Prince Orloff was irritated. 
M. Thiers was very exasperated, and he went so far as 
to say to me : 

"I never spoke of that to any one. You should have 
communicated with me before repeating what had been 
only partially told you." He thought I had overheard 
his conversation with M. Timachief. 

I was indignant. I gave way to one of those fits of 
nervous excitement which at times will master us. And 
in a loud voice I replied: "The ruler of a State commits 
a great imprudence when he receives a journalist who can 
repeat aloud what is told him in a whisper," and I burst 
out of the room furiously. 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 47 

Three weeks afterward I met M. Thiers in the Galerie 
des Tombeaux. He came up to me smiHng. "You are 
certainly a good journalist," he said; "but your nerves 
are so highly strung that I shall never think of making 
you an ambassador." Then he asked me to call on 
him, as he had an interesting piece of news to give me. 
Peace was restored between us. 

This is a sufficient illustration of the difficulty a news- 7 
paper correspondent has in both serving his friends and / 
telling the truth. It is prudent for him to accept no i 
favour which can give those who bestow it a right or 
claim to control him. 

A short time after I had officially entered on my duties 
as a Times correspondent, Mr. Oliphant took a holiday, 
and, with the approval of the newspaper, entrusted me 
with the non-telegraphic correspondence. I was delighted 
to see my first letter copied into the newspapers of every 
country. I had the same satisfaction in 1872, when I 
gave an account of my interview at Antwerp with the 
Count de Chambord. 

Not long afterward a lucky accident secured for me 
the approbation and good-will of Mr. John Delane, who 
for thirty-two years was editor of the Times, and who, 
I need scarcely say, was the most competent judge of the 
merits of a journalist, and the honour and glory of the 
profession. 

In the year referred to Mr. Delane came to Paris, and 
I then saw him for the first time. I accompanied him 
to Versailles, and we were present at a sitting of the 
Chamber, which was entirely taken up by an admirable 
speech by M. Thiers, delivered amidst the greatest excite- 
ment. We returned together to Paris, and the same 



48 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

night Mr, Delane left for London. It was toward the end 
of April, and I went with him to the station. At 
that time there was no proper arrangement for the 
publication in Paris of the debates at Versailles, The 
summary appeared very late, and the report of the pro- 
ceedings given by the Soir could not be had in Paris in 
time to be made use of by us. 

"What a pity," said Mr, Delane, on leaving me, "that 
things are so badly organised ! If we could have given 
that speech from one end to the other in to-morrow's 
paper, what a glorious thing it would have been !" 

When he had left, a wild idea came into my head. 
Following the old habit which I still retain, I sat down 
and shut my eyes. I then strove to call up the image of 
the Assembly, with M. Thiers in the rostrum, and as 
I had listened very attentively to what he had said, it 
seemed as if I could hear him speaking, and that I could 
write down his speech. 

I went at once to the telegraph office in the Rue 
de Grenelle. I obtained writing materials in an empty 
room. There I put into operation my mnemonic process. 
Alternately I shut my eyes to see and hear M. Thiers and 
opened them to write out the speech for the wire. I 
was able to recall and report all his speech, which was of 
course instantaneously transmitted to London. When Mr, 
Delane, next morning, opened the Times, in England, he 
found in it two columns and a half, reporting the 
speech he had heard on the previous afternoon at 
Versailles, 

The direct wire which the Times obtained two years 
afterward — in May, 1874 — and which has now been so 
generally imitated, was the result of the effort I made 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 49 

on this occasion to outstrip the Paris journalists in 
reporting their own news. 

Mr. Oliphant, as I told my readers, had come to 
Europe from America in compliance with orders he 
had received from the founder of a sect whom he 
spoke of as "the prophet Harris." He had for years 
led a troubled life in London. His countrymen had 
been both amused and scandalized by the publication 
of a satirical sheet, the Owl. 

He was beginning to reflect on the vanity of a life 
leading to nothing great or noble, when he made the 
acquaintance of Mr. Harris, who was looking out in 
Europe for converts and recruits to join a colony 
they had founded in the United States. His 
doctrine soon took a firm hold of the imagination 
of Oliphant, who recognised "the prophet" as one 
whom it was his duty to serve and obey. In proof 
of this, he submitted to the hardest and meanest work. 
Thus, as a labourer, he drove carts filled with manure, 
for the new colony — the "Brethren of the New Life." 

Harris sent Oliphant back to Europe on the outbreak 
of the Franco-German war, and it was then he entered 
the employment of the Times, at first as a special war 
correspondent and afterward as chief Paris representative 
of the paper. He had married a charming wife, whom he 
easily converted to the new faith ; she, in fact, accepted 
her husband's teaching with the docility of a loving heart, 
blind to the errors of the apostle. From the commence- 
ment of our official intercourse I had taken special care 
to make known to my colleague my religious opinions, 
in order to avert any controversy or misunderstanding 
between us. 



50 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

The first time he began to explain his doctrines I 
interrupted him. 

" Excuse me, " I said, " I think we ought to settle once 
for all this question of proselytism which might cause 
differences between us. I cannot accept the views of 
your prophet, which are based on pride. He has proved 
to you that you are greater than other men because you 
/ have submitted to drive a dust-cart. I prefer the word 
/ of Christ, who taught us not to consider ourselves greater 
/ or better than other men, because we are dust ourselves. 
Humanity oscillates between atheism, which rejects 
( reason, and reason, which bows to faith. Those who 
j would substitute the everlasting harmony of the world 
by successive aggregations arising out of chaos in fulfil- 
ment of an unconscious and sublime order, claim a greater 
effort from me than those who ask me to believe in one 
God and in the doctrine of the Trinity. When I have 
admitted that God created the world, I have expressed 
a belief, certainly, which makes revealed religions appear 
infinitely less miraculous and a thousandfold more 
acceptable than the theory of spontaneous creation and 
automatic development. That from the midst of the 
people of God, trodden under the hoof of the pagan 
conqueror in the corrupt Grasco-Roman world, there 
should have arisen a prophet who, instead of hatred 
and revolution, preached charity, forgiveness, brotherly 
love and good-will toward all men, was itself a greater 
miracle than any of those attributed to Christ during 
his sojourn on earth. Unless you can teach me a religion 
which inculcates precepts more sublime than those of 
the divine philosopher of Nazareth, which your prophet 
does not do, leave me my faith without seeking to trouble 



._, .J 



HOW I BECAME A JOURNALIST 51 

it. You may make an unhappy man, but you will not 
make a disciple. " 

Oliphant did not reply. He was perhaps pleased that I 
had spoken with so much sincerity, and the subject was 
never again referred to. 



o 

CHAPTER III 

A Champagne Conspiracy 

On the 31st of July, 1872, Count de Keratry, who was 
then Prefect of the Department of Bouches-du-Rhone, 
came to Versailles. His object was to induce M. Thiers 
to bring to the notice of the National Assembly the 
serious contention which existed between himself and 
the Mayor of Marseilles. M. Thiers received him most 
kindly, listened to what he had to say, and, by way of 
reply, invited him to luncheon. At table he was most 
attentive to his guest, paying him all the honours due 
to his position as head official of one of the largest Prefec- 
tures of France. He offered him the seat to the right of 
Madame Thiers, facing himself. This strict observance 
of etiquette was, at the same time, a clever piece of 
strategy, for M. Thiers had given M. de Keratry the only 
place at table from which it was impossible for him to 
discuss with his host the question about which he had 
come. M. de Keratry understood this, and immediately 
after luncheon, as M. Thiers appeared to be greatly 
pressed for time, he took leave of him and we left the 
house together. 

"He was afraid," said M. de Keratry, "that I should 
compel him to delay the prorogation of the National 
Assembly." 

That was quite true. M. Thiers was leaving the 
following day for Trouville, where he was to spend a few 

52 



A CHAMPAGNE CONSPIRACY 53 

weeks. The National Assembly was to cease work that 
very afternoon and take its vacation. 

The idea of this visit to Trouville delighted M. Thiers 
and he was as excited as a child about it, for, thanks to 
his chubby appearance, short and stout as he was, his 
exhibitions of joy or anger were apt to appear childlike. 

He had taken the Cordier Chalet at Trouville. Every- 
thing was arranged ; all preparations had been completed, 
and part of the presidential household already installed 
in the chalet, expecting to receive its master at any 
moment. The train in which M. Thiers was to travel 
was waiting in the Versailles station ready to start. 
The various localities where the presidential train was 
to stop had been advised of the hour and of the length 
of time the train would remain there. In short, all the 
preliminaries which are necessary for an official and, 
one might almost say, a triumphal voyage had been 
arranged, and M. Thiers was in a state of joyful im- 
patience which made the idea of any delay in his 
departure unbearable. 

Count de Keratry gained nothing by his journey. 
The National Assembly was prorogued, and M. Thiers 
was free to start. 

The departure was fixed for the first of August, at an 
early hour in the morning. 

At Versailles the silence which had followed the 
departure of the National Assembly was broken by 
unusual animation. A somewhat large group had 
gathered in front of the gates of the Prefecture, where 
open carriages awaited the Chief of the State, whilst his 
civil and military household, in full uniform, were in the 
courtyard. The sun was radiant — less radiant, though, 



54 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

than M. Thiers himself when, dressed in black, with his 
frock-coat buttoned, tight-fitting gloves and a gray hat, 
he came down into the courtyard, accompanied by 
Madame Thiers and Mademoiselle Dosne. 

Colonel Lambert, Captain Fayet and Lieutenant de 
Salignac-Fenelon, drawn up in a line, gave the military 
salute, with a smile on their lips. They, with M. Leroux 
and M. Andrieux, chief secretaries and their assistants, 
walking bareheaded, formed the retinue which was to 
accompany the President to Trouville. 

The little crowd gave a few confused shouts when the 
carriages, at a slow, measured pace, passed through the 
gates in the direction of the station. 

As they proceeded, quite a number of people raised 
their hats respectfully. The travellers formed a line, 
the Democrats remaining bareheaded and the Reactionists 
keeping their hats on and holding their heads up in a 
defiant way. The station was decorated, and a railway 
inspector preceded M. Thiers to the carriage reserved 
for him, and remained at his orders until he arrived at 
his destination. It was the departure of a sovereign, 
without his state dress, travelling incognito. 

The train left by a side line, joining the main line I do 
not remember where, and on the platform of the first 
station at which it stopped we saw a stout man appear, 
with a red face, wearing the tri-coloured sash. He 
placed himself in front of M. Thiers with several other 
men round him, all of whom had very red faces. He 
then took out a paper and proceeded to read, but his 
slow, monotonous voice did not reach our ears. 

M. Thiers, who had turned his back on us, bowed 
several times, raised his hat slightly and then, with 



A CHAMPAGNE CONSPIRACY 55 

quick, graceful gestures, replied in his clear, refined 
voice, and every one applauded. There were a few shouts 
heard, which were taken up by the crowd that had 
gathered outside the station alongside the railings of the 
platform. M. Thiers continued talking for a few minutes. 
He made inquiries about the needs and wishes of the 
little town, but he stopped the Mayor in his enumeration 
and took his leave just as the poor man, with his arm in 
the air, was continuing the list of all the wants and 
requirements of this particular part of the country. 
We could see nothing of M. Thiers but his back, but he 
must have been delighted, for positively his very back 
was laughing heartily. The President, leaving the 
Mayor rather surprised at the unexpected way in which 
the interview ended, went back to his compartment, 
and we set off once more on our journey. At Trouville, 
the station was very nicely decorated. Carriages were 
waiting for M. Thiers in the courtyard where there was 
a rather large crowd, which included the Mayor and the 
members of the Municipal Council. The Mayor was a 
man well known to M. Thiers and to all of us, and his 
little speech sounded very well. 

The President and suite drove through the town, 
which had been decorated here and there, to the Cordier 
Chalet. He was greeted cordially by the population, 
whilst from the top of the Honfleur road, behind the 
Hotel des Roches-Noires, could be heard the firing of a 
cannon. It was merely by chance, and was rather 
ironical, as it had not been intended in honour of the 
President's arrival. This incident provided members of 
the opposition, who happened to be promenading on the 
famous planks, with an excellent subject for endless jokes. 



S6 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

M. Thiers was soon installed, without much ceremony, 
in the Cordier Chalet. But on the day following his 
arrival it was evident that Trouville was inhabited by 
some one of note, and that the seaside resort had become 
a centre of importance. The trains brought visitors, 
whose appearance attracted attention. A whole troop 
of individuals who had favours to ask swooped down 
on the beach. Men, who were either imperious or 
ruined and desperate, came to beg for themselves, for 
their cousins, their friends or their sons, prefectures, 
sub-prefectures, consulates or tax collectorships, or other 
government appointments of all kinds and of all classes. 
Women, outrageously made up, pushed forward into the 
front row as the old President passed by, and when once 
there, with their enticing looks, they endeavoured to 
bombard with their eyes the dispenser of the favours 
they hoped to obtain. 

They were all of them convinced that M. Thiers could 
do anything he wished, and that a smile from him meant, 
for them, at least six thousand francs a year. 

It seemed as though the hour for sharing the spoils had 
come. The Empire in its fall had left behind the widows 
of the Budget and the orphans of the Civil List. The 
eighteen years of its reign had sharpened the teeth of 
those who had only seen the feast at a distance, and all 
those of yesterday, and those of to-day, were asking for 
their share of the taxpayers' flesh. 

Besides these ordinary, starving creatures "who walked 
the planks," as the saying was at Trouville at the time, 
there were also certain persons in a higher position, who 
were more interesting and better qualified to get situa- 
tions. Then there were Ambassadors, Members of the 



A CHAMPAGNE CONSPIRACY 57 

Assembly, Ministers of yesterday and of to-morrow, 
financiers both sound and unsound, exotic visitors, women 
merely elegant or titled who wanted to see the celebrities 
of the day and be able to tell, de visu, anything that would 
be of interest at their receptions or at their dinner-parties, 
foreign statesmen who suddenly felt the need of visiting 
the seaside resorts of Normandy, a crowd that came from 
all parts, a pack of human cards which chance, or political 
or social strategy, mixed together — all these flocked round 
M. Thiers. The salon of the Cordier Chalet, more often 
than not, contained the rarest mixture of people, and as 
finally every one felt at liberty to speak freely, nothing 
was more lively, more piquant and more suggestive than 
these soirees of the Trouville Court, during which the 
President was sometimes dozing peacefully in his arm- 
chair in the midst of a gentle hum of voices murmuring 
around him. 

The firing or testing of the Reffye cannon on the top 
of the Honfieur road was at the time one of the pastimes 
of this seaside resort. A rough enclosure had been 
erected on the plateau and soldiers were stationed there. 
A few cannons, without any horses, but with men 
and ammunition, had been placed there. 

The French flag waved from the top of a pole. A few 
artillerymen mounted guard most solemnly and a crowd 
of curious and well-dressed people were always loitering 
there. 

M. Thiers, nearly every day, after luncheon, went up 
to the plateau attended by his military suite. 

The soldiers shouldered arms. The artillery officers 
grouped themselves round him, by the side of the three 



58 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

officers of his household. A few foreign military attaches 
walked up the hill and were present at the experiments. 
In the distance, on the moving water, an old black barge, 
pierced with holes like a battle-flag, tossing and rocking 
about, served as a target. M. Thiers, with his gray hat 
pushed slightly back, his big field-glass up to his eyes, 
his frock-coat buttoned, and sometimes affecting the 
traditional pose of Napoleon, watched the balls fly 
through the air, saw when they struck, and waved his 
hat enthusiastically when a straight shot shook the 
barge, made it dance about, and hollowed out a gaping 
hole in its already perforated hulk. 

The crowd applauded. M. Thiers raised his hat again, 
congratulated the artillerymen who had pointed the gun 
and those who had fired and then rejoined Madame Thiers 
and Mademoiselle Dosne, and, followed by an imposing 
procession, continued his daily promenade along the 
sandy road. From the balcony, where I was, I could 
see him, lifting his gray hat incessantly, whilst, as he 
passed, the men all took off their hats, and the vieille 
garde, in brilliant colours, stood aside or bowed like a 
cornfield ravaged by the hail and interspersed with 
daisies, corn-flowers and poppies. 

My stay at Trouville had already extended beyond the 
time which had been allotted me. M. Thiers seemed 
annoyed whenever I spoke of returning to Paris, and I 
began to wonder how I should manage to escape, when, 
on the 13th of August, in the afternoon, I was told that 
the President, whom I had seen in the morning, had 
just started for Paris. One of his secretaries informed 
me that he had been recalled suddenly to preside at a 



A CHAMPAGNE CONSPIRACY 59 

Council which was to meet on the morrow, and after 
which he would return to Trouville. The following 
day, although I had no council whatever at which to 
preside, I took the same route as the President and 
returned to Paris. 

It was with a great sense of comfort and relief that I 
entered my own home once more, closing the doors to all 
that went on in the outside world, and giving orders that 
neither letters nor newspapers should be brought to me. 
For the last twenty-five years this has been my method 
of obtaining absolute rest. On the 1 5th, however, in the 
evening, in spite of my strict orders, the outside world 
did succeed in penetrating into my house in the form 
of an official despatch. 

"Come back as soon as possible. You are impatiently 
awaited." 

The despatch, on yellow paper, was signed by one of 
M. Thiers 's secretaries. That was the end of my short 
rest. 

I felt veryisad. I took the first train the next day and 
had a compartment to myself. I did not open a news- 
paper, and went straight from the station to the Cordier 
Chalet. 

The very moment I arrived I was struck by the unusual 
attitude of things. At the gateway quite a number of 
soldiers and policemen had been stationed. On entering 
every one was examined with visible distrust, and 
although I was well known, I had to imdergo a sort of 
progressive inspection before crossing the first threshold. 
From the gates to the chalet the most extraordinary 
precautions appeared to have been taken. There were 



6o MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

patrols, or men who seemed to be acting as such, walking 
along the paths, and through the leaves of the summer 
arbours I could see the disciples of "Saint Detective," 
dressed like well-to-do citizens of the suburbs of Paris, 
promenading about warily and watching over the welfare 
of the State. The man servant on duty introduced me 
without even announcing me. I was expected. M. 
Thiers was alone in the large drawing-room, the principal 
door of which, leading on to a flight of stone steps, was 
open to the sunshine. He rose quickly and shook hands 
with me. 

"Well, what do you think of it?" he asked. 

"To what are you referring. Monsieur le President?" 
I answered. 

"To what am I referring? Have you been asleep for 
the last twenty-four hours?" 

The reproach was well deserved, for I had been asleep 
for the last forty-eight hours. I could only bow in 
silence. 

"Well, now," continued M. Thiers laughing, "you are 
a well-informed correspondent ! Is it possible that you 
have not heard about the conspiracy, of which I came 
very near being the victim yesterday afternoon ?" 

"No, really I have not," I answered. "I was taking my 
holiday, and as my work consists in knowing everything, 
my holiday consists in not knowing anything." 

"Oh, well," continued M. Thiers in his low, hissing 
voice, "yesterday being the 15th of August, the Emperor's 
birthday, a band of conspirators in a Russian boat 
approached the shore and as they fired their cannons 
they shouted: 'Long live the Emperor,' just at the time 
when I am accustomed to rest on the terrace of the 



A CHAMPAGNE CONSPIRACY 6i 

Roches-Noires. They went toward the Hotel des Roches- 
Noires, in front of which some harmless-looking little 
boats were tacking about near the shore, whilst the big 
boat had gone back to the high sea and was also tacking. 
The plan was to get hold of me and carry me off to the 
ship. You see at once the consequences. The Assembly 
is having its vacation. There is no doubt a watchword 
had been agreed upon, and accomplices were waiting 
from one end of France to the other for the news that I 
was captured. They would then have brought about a 
general rising ; the Emperor would have landed on a cer- 
tain point of the coast, and they would have endeavoured 
to restore the Empire. I have not yet the list of all the 
conspirators, but I know the two principal ones. First 
and foremost is M. Gimsbourg, the owner of the Russian 
boat. Oh, as for him, he can set his mind at rest ! Orloff 
came at once and declared that he would have Gunsbourg 
recalled and his boat burned. The other is M. Bertrand 
de Valon, son of the Countess de Valon, whom I saw only 
a few days ago. I promised her that I would do some- 
thing for her son, not knowing that he was a Bonapartist. 
I shall send them both to the Assize Court, where they 
will have to answer the charge of armed conspiracy." 

I was simply dumfounded on hearing this story. How 
could I have had the bad luck not to know anything about 
so serious a matter ! How was it that I, after accompany- 
ing M. Thiers to Trouville and for a fortnight keeping 
my readers well-informed with regard to his doings and 
movements — how was it that I, who, to use an expression 
which he had so good-naturedly applied to me, had 
constituted myself his "affectionate historiographer," 
how could I have allowed such an event to happen without 



62 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

even mentioning it? By the expression of my face 
M. Thiers could read my thoughts. He looked at me 
over his spectacles and came close up to me, as he was 
accustomed to do when he wanted to penetrate an}^ one's 
inner reflections. 

"We'll make up for all this," he said; "I'm delighted 
that you have not yet written anything about it. You 
have not, as they say, taken up your position yet." 

He then gave me the details, and begged me to read 
the letter to him which I was to send to my paper that 
same night. It was the first time he had ever asked me 
such a thing, and when I left him I was somewhat vexed 
at his request. I made no promise about the matter. 
On entering the Roches-Noires, I found M. Gunsbourg 
very much abashed. Every one was aware that I had 
just returned and that I had seen M. Thiers. Trouville 
is too small a place for that not to have been known. 
It was rumoured on all sides that I had gone direct to the 
Cordier Chalet, and that I had just come from there, 
after a conversation of an hour and a half, and about 
twenty persons, among whom was M. Gunsbourg, 
gathered around me. 

At Trouville, the population had been apprised of 
M. Thiers' s anger, and was eager to hear what terrible 
decisions the indignant old man had taken. I refused 
to reply to any question ; I sent for M. Gunsbourg and 
asked him to come to the rooms on the ground floor 
which had been reserved for me. 

Never shall I forget the look of consternation on the 
young man's face when I questioned him about the plot 
in which he had taken so active a part. Recovering 
at last from his surprise, and understanding that M. 



A CHAMPAGNE CONSPIRACY 63 

Thiers was mistaken and that people had deceived him 
or that he had wanted to be deceived, with an accent of 
truth which could not be doubted, and taking the whole 
town as witness, he told me the story of what had really- 
taken place. 

He had come to Trouville in his yacht and was sailing 
round the coasts of the English Channel. On the morning 
of the fifteenth of August he had started with some 
of his friends, among whom was M. Bertrand de Valon, 
with the idea of having a sail and a lunch out at sea. 
They had a good meal, drank copiously, and on approach- 
ing the shore they remembered, in spite of the effect of 
the champagne, that the fifteenth of August was the 
Emperor's birthday, and so, in the midst of the noise of 
corks flying out of the bottles and the firing of the parade 
cannon loaded with powder, to which one of them had set 
a light, they all began in their liveliness and folly to 
shout, " Long live the Emperor." 

The crowd understood the incident and roared with 
laughter at them. The police had endeavoured to 
capture them, but the crowd, very naturally, had taken 
their part. There had been a great commotion, and 
the conspirators, sobered down and rather ashamed of 
themselves, had disappeared, whilst an action had been 
commenced against the owner of the yacht and against 
M. Bertrand de Valon, who had remained with him. 
M. Gunsbourg, in the name of his comrades, begged me 
to explain to M. Thiers how the affair had come about, 
to express to him the regret that these young madcaps 
now felt, and to add that they were themselves prepared 
to apologise to him. As soon as M. Gunsbourg had 
gone I sent for the Paris evening papers of the fifteenth 



64 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

and the morning papers of the sixteenth, which I had not 
read (all the above had taken place on the fifteenth), and 
I proceeded to read them. They varied in tone, style 
and in the version they gave, according to the political 
opinion of the paper or according to the temperament 
of the reporter. By reading all these stories and 
comparing all the information I obtained elsewhere, 
it was quite clear to me that the event had been 
exaggerated beyond measure, and that, if the young 
men implicated were far from being quite innocent, 
they were also far from being really guilty. 

Toward the end of dinner that evening M. Thiers asked 
me, quietly, if my letter were written. I replied that, as 
it would have been too late for the post that day, I had 
postponed it for the next morning ; that there would be no 
time lost, as I was not going to give the items of news, 
but was going to explain and comment on the event ; and 
I asked him to discuss the subject again with me. 

But as soon as I endeavoured to attenuate the nature 
and the significance of the incident, M. Thiers grew 
angry and looked at me distrustfully. He was still 
furious, or he pretended to be so. 

As a matter of fact, people abroad understood what 
had happened, and the Countess de Valon summed up 
the general opinion in a letter she wrote to me a few 
days later: 

"These young men," she said, "had lunched rather 
too festively out at sea, and, like so many big children, 
they had played at the landing of the Emperor — seven 
of them ! It was more like a charade than anything 



A CHAMPAGNE CONSPIRACY 65 

else. That is my explanation of their freak, and that is 
how it has been understood abroad. M. Thiers has too 
much common sense, and is too wise, to give to this piece 
of child's play more importance than it deserves. No 
doubt certain zealous officials thought they were serving 
or flattering M. Thiers by magnifying the incident, and 
at the same time they were able to take the credit of 
having saved him from danger." 

I wrote my letter, which was a scathing one. An 
attorney for the Republic entrusted with the case would 
have signed it with both hands. I read it to M. Thiers, who 
was delighted with it. He even asked me to soften down 
a few sentences. As it was then the seventeenth and the 
news was growing stale, he called my attention to the 
fact that the letter would only reach London on the 
eighteenth, and that on account of Sunday it would only 
be published on the twentieth. I replied that it would 
go that night by wire, and that very night the telegraph 
communicated the original to the ofifice. 

Is there any need for me to add that the letter was 
never intended to appear and that it never did appear ! 
My newspaper had been informed on the morning of the 
seventeenth of what had happened, of what was then 
happening, and what would happen. 

But thanks to the letter which I had read to him, 
M. Thiers was greatly appeased with regard to the con- 
spirators. He even allowed me to say that my state- 
ment of the case had been harsher than the gravity of the 
event warranted. 

An inquiry was instituted. It was dragged on for a long 
time, some extraordinary attenuations being given to the 



66 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

first reports. M. Thiers himself now came over to my 
opinion and thought that my letter had perhaps gone too 
far. For several days he asked for the Times. His 
secretaries, whom I had warned, invented various pre- 
texts for explaining the absence of the paper, which 
was never to be found; it was always being mislaid. 
After three or four days M. Thiers appeared to 
have forgotten about it, btit at the end of the week, 
as I was going away, one evening he said to me with 
a sly look: 

"Did you pay for that wire?" 

"No, Monsieur le President," I answered, "my paper 
paid for it." 

M. Thiers came nearer and looked at me over his 
spectacles : 

" Did you know that it would not appear?" 

"The paper was free to publish it. Monsieur le Presi- 
dent." 

"Ah — well, that was money very wisely thrown away. 
I don't regret it." And then after a minute he added: 
"They no doubt thought as I did, that your letter was 
too severe " 



A fortnight later the conspirators were summoned 
to appear before the court at Pont-l'Ev^que. They 
were each sentenced to pay a fine of sixteen francs 
for disturbance of the peace. But M. Thiers 
had received letters, messages and telegrams from 
all parts of the world and he was delighted. 
He knew that in order to be truly a cousin of 



A CHAMPAGNE CONSPIRACY 67 

kings it is necessary to inspire the people who are 
fortunate enough to be living under your reign with 
the violent desire of ridding themselves at any price 
of your presence. 



CHAPTER IV 

Alphonso XII. Proclaimed King of Spain 

It was only in October, 1872, if I remember rightly — 
for his letter bears no date — that Laurence Oliphant 
informed me that he had just heard from Mr. Mowbray 
Morris, then manager of the Times, whose duty it was 
to appoint the correspondents of the paper and their 
assistants, to the effect that I was to remain definitely 
under his orders, Mr. Charles Austin continuing to be 
attached to the Paris office as second correspondent. 

Soon after, Laurence proposed that I should take up 
my abode with his mother and himself, who lived in a 
small house with court and garden in the Rue du Centre, 
now the Rue Lamenais. Oliphant and his mother lived 
on the first floor; my wife, my adopted daughter and I 
occupied the second floor. The upper stories, as well as 
the dining-room on the ground floor, were common to us 
both. We took our meals together, my wife having charge 
of all the domestic arrangements. The anxieties and 
practical difficulties attendant upon the management 
of a double household of this sort were beyond the power 
of Mrs. Oliphant. Like so many English ladies who have 
spent much time in the colonies, she had always been in 
the habit of shifting the responsibility of domestic and 
household worries upon others and upon her servants. 

We met every day at meals, at noon and at seven 
o'clock. In the morning I went to Versailles, which 

68 



ALPHONSO XII. PROCLAIMED KING 69 

was then the centre of poHtical information. At the 
luncheon hour I was back in Paris, when we discussed 
the information that I had gathered, considering it from 
the point of view of its value for our correspondence. In 
the evening I sent, under the signature of Oliphant, who 
had relieved me of the duty of communicating them to 
him in advance, all those items of news which would 
have grown stale if consigned to the tardy post, and 
which, owing to the lateness of their reaching me, I was 
unable to communicate to my chief. 

Oliphant, as I have said before, had come to Europe 
and France by order of Mr. Harris, who still continued 
to be a prophet, or rather his prophet. Harris had not 
told him why he was to come to Europe; he had merely 
told him to come. Was it that the Prophet did not 
himself know? 

In any case, as long as Oliphant had to describe to 
the readers of the Times the agitated life of camps with 
the fever of revolutions and the thousand crises that 
attended the painful situation in France during the war 
and the Revolution, he proved himself to be a marvellous 
correspondent; but when the country, apparently ex- 
hausted, crushed and scorched under fire and war, 
attempted with extraordinary elasticity to raise itself from 
the ruins and walk again with head erect among the 
nations, Laurence Oliphant felt himself, as it were, humili- 
ated at having to do the work of a peaceful and faithful 
historian, which was now incumbent upon him. 

His relations with the Times, therefore, became now 
more and more irksome, and it was only by a strong 
effort that he succeeded in fulfilling his daily task. 
His attitude toward the Thiers Government was an 



70 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

indication of his state of mind at this time. He always 
refused to go to Versailles to see M. Thiers, and when 
he did see him he was irritated and almost haughty, 
and treated the opinions and theories of M. Thiers with 
a kind of ironical and supercilious indulgence very much 
like disdain. He refused the offer of the Legion of 
Honour almost rudely, as though the Red Rosette were 
intended as a badge of servitude. His young wife, whose 
aspirations were more elevated than his, perhaps, and 
more romantic, could not be satisfied by this daily task, 
a little too exactingly regular, so that she was not likely 
to induce him to love it any the more. He threw the 
bridle upon my neck, approved in advance of all my 
communications, and received them rather with the 
pleasure of a reader than with the attention of a corre- 
spondent called upon to render them public. These 
tendencies were often prejudicial to the best exercise of 
his abilities, and clearly presaged the end. 

I was not surprised, therefore, when, in the year 1873, 
he announced to me one day that as a result of some 
rather sharp correspondence betv/een Mr. Macdonald, 
then manager of the Times, and himself, he had just 
sent in his resignation as special correspondent of that 
paper in France. 

Some days later he introduced me to his successor. It 
was Mr. Frederic Hardman, whom I had succeeded at 
the start and replaced afterward. It did not take long 
for me to understand, and undoubtedly Mr. Hardman 
understood also, that we should have many difficulties 
in our intercourse. 

Mr. Frederic Hardman was a veteran among Times 
correspondents. His position, his great loyalty, the 



ALPHONSO XII. PROCLAIMED KING 71 

uprightness of his character, his devotion to the cause 
of the paper, and his fine talent and great experience 
had won for him the friendship of his chiefs and of all 
connected with the Times. He had lived for a long 
period in Spain, and he had very accurate notions in 
regard to that country and its political parties, then 
so eagerly wrangling among themselves. He had lived 
in Rome and in Germany as well; he knew many states- 
men in all countries, and he was on the best of terms with 
men of the old regime in France. 

But the new political structure and the men who were 
at this moment governing France were unknown to him. 
He did not see that defeat had produced in every one a 
nervous condition, a kind of chronic distrust, something 
bitter in the feelings toward foreigners and everything 
foreign. 

His first attempts to seek information and to put 
together some elements of work were not a success, and 
he generally summed up the result with a "There is 
nothing new." He had, besides, the American 
method. He took down the words that were said 
to him in a note-book which he held in his hand, a 
method which in France is infallible for learning abso- 
lutely nothing; for, as M. Duclerc said, "This method 
of cross-examination puts you immediately on the defen- 
sive, and shuts your mouth while it opens your eyes." 

After some days' trial he explained to me that he was 
anxious to arrange our work as I had done before with 
Oliphant ; that I was to go in search of information, and 
that he would make my results the theme of correspon- 
dence. He left me also the department of the prepara- 
tion of rapid news necessitating short despatches. 



72 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

This plan worked well for some time. Unfortunately 
the situation was false. He was my chief, but he was 
unknown to the majority of Frenchmen, and whenever 
we found ourselves together in the same salon, in spite 
of all precautions that I took, the positions, in the eyes 
of a third person, seemed inverted. Some incidents, 
unfortunate, but inevitable, complicated matters. Once 
he went to the Elys6e, handing his card to the usher, in 
order to speak to Viscount d'Harcourt, the President's 
secretary. The usher replied that M. d'Harcourt could 
not be seen. 

"Tell him that it is the correspondent of the Times 
who wishes to see him." 

The usher looked at him rudely: "Pardon me," he 
said, "but the correspondent of the Times has just left 
the Secretary." 

On another occasion one of his friends, Lord X , 

left a visiting card at the Hotel Chatham, to be sent to 
the correspondent of the Times. It was taken to my 
house. As it constantly happens for one to receive 
cards from unknown persons, I thought that this card 
was meant for me, and I returned the visit. 

The crisis after these incidents became acute. I had 
arranged, at Mr. Macdonald's order, the special wire to 
the Times, which was the first then established, and which 
was used for the first time on May 4, 1874. 

Mr. Hardman, without any experience in that kind 
of work, was obliged to adapt himself to this most exacting 
method of improvising upon the most recent events that 
were in progress as one wrote an account of them. Letters 
logically conceived throughout had to be written while 
the telegraph waited, without opportunity for revision. 



ALPHONSO XII. PROCLAIMED KING 73 

This had a baneful effect ; the strain affected the health, 
temper and nervous system of Mr. Hardman, and made 
collaboration with him impossible. Four times did 
pressing telegraphic recalls to Paris interrupt my holidays, 
and finally, when I was summoned thither a fifth time, 
after an absence of only three days, I returned obediently, 
but resolved to send in my resignation, which now 
seemed inevitable. 

I had neither the wish nor the power to act otherwise, 
and so once more I was on the point, notwithstanding 
that I had reached an advanced time of life, of abandoning 
a career for which I had so sincere an enthusiasm and to 
which I had dreamed of devoting the remainder of my 
existence. But on reaching Paris I learned that Mr. 
Hardman was seriously ill. 

He was then living across the river in the Rue Solferino. 
It was his habit, after the nervous excitement of his 
work, to return on foot to his house always at a late hour 
of the night — sometimes, indeed, in the early morning, 
thus courting the illness which was destined to carry him 
away. It was pleurisy, contracted during his walk, 
on coming out from his work in a state of perspiration 
into the icy air, which finally, after a few days of resistance, 
proved fatal. In every sense of the word, he was upright 
and devoted to his duty, and he died from having heroic- 
ally undertaken something beyond his strength. It 
was neither our characters nor our sympathies nor our 
wills that made our intercourse so difficult — nay, I 
may say all but impossible — but it was the falsity of 
the position in which we happened to be placed. None 
of my friends who knew me well were surprised to see 
me weeping sincerely at the premature death of this 



74 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

excellent man. The Times devoted to him an eloquent 
article, ftill of kind sentiment, which, notwithstanding its 
notes of eulogy, scarcely did him justice, and then — all 
was over. 

There is nothing in the world more melancholy than 
the sudden silence that falls round the tomb of those 
painstaking, steady workers who follow with unwearying 
conscientiousness up to the very end the furrow of their 
daily task, without arousing hatred, without provoking 
jealousy, and who leave at the last the memory of a calent 
to which every one pays equal homage. In the journal- 
istic career posthimious enthusiasm is never noisy. 
Even beyond the tomb the fame of the dead is an offense, 
and the very haters seem to prefer to hold their peace, 
lest in attempting to gain satisfaction they revive the 
memory of the contestants who have disappeared. 

Nothing is more melancholy than the startling rapidity 
with which these turbulent existences, linked in a merely 
ephemeral work, enter into the dark oblivion of the 
tomb. The most distinguished among them scarcely 
survive, and future generations know them not, because 
even living generations have passed them by in silence. 
The Royer CoUards, the Benjamin Constants, the Thiers, 
have survived in the memory of men not because they 
were journalists, but in spite of it. Armand Carrel is 
not yet forgotten because he was killed in a duel with 
Girardin; and the latter, who was a man of business as 
well as a journalist, lives because he was the promoter 
of postal reform rather than because for forty years he 
had been the most active of journalists. Laurence 
Oliphant's life was written because he lived an existence 
full of agitation, because he was nearly massacred in Japan, 



ALPHONSO XII. PROCLAIMED KING 75 

because he published books of satire and philosophy, 
because his ever-inquiring mind pursued, beyond the 
barriers of reality, the solution of problems that con- 
stantly escaped his insight and his power, and because 
in the solitude of Haifa, scaling in his turn Mount Carmel, 
he sought to preach from its heights a new law which he 
believed to be true. 

But no one has dreamed, or dreams, so far as I know, of 
writing the life of that admirable journalist, John Delane, 
the editor of the Times. For thirty-two years he was 
the Moltke of a venerated chief, sacrificing to the 
triumph of the common work his right of remonstrance. 
Under the reign of Mr. John Walter, the third of the 
dynasty which gave to England the uncontested power 
of the Times, John Delane, for thirty-two years, without 
even leaving behind him memoirs which could recall his 
success, led his troops to continual victories. He began 
his fruitful career almost at the accession of Queen 
Victoria. He was editor-in-chief of the Times at the 
age at which Pitt became Prime Minister. At different 
epochs, and in the midst of dissimilar generations, these 
two — the one before the admiring gaze of the entire 
world, the other in the distant silence of the editorial 
room; the one amid the acclamations of the crowd, the 
other with only the approval of his conscience — worked 
with equally precocious qualities and displayed equal 
genius in the accomplishment of their varied tasks and 
in the steady realisation of their designs. 

During John Delane' s career the following events took 
place: The Revolution of 1848, the coup d'etat of the 
second of December, the proclamation of the Second 
Empire, the Crimean War, the Italian War, the Mexican 



76 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

Expedition, that against Schleswig-Holstein, and the war 
of 1866, the war of 1870, the Commune, the proclama- 
tion of the German Empire, the DuaHsm in Austria, the 
Russo-Hungarian campaign, the conception and the 
opening of the Suez Canal, the Nihilist plots, the great 
reforms that mark the internal policy of the reign of 
Queen Victoria, and a thousand others which for the 
moment I forget. Always and everywhere the dominant 
voice of his journal sounded far above the clamour of the 
combatants, and everywhere and always he lent to those 
to whom he gave his support a real power, while he 
weakened incontestably those against whom he fought. 
Yet when he died not a single voice in the world among 
his bitterest opponents was raised in disparagement of 
his conscientiousness, his justice and his honour. For 
thirty-two years he allowed nothing to prevent his 
going to his room in the Times at half -past ten in the 
evening and leaving it at half-past four. He gave his 
entire life to this silent work by night, subordinating to it 
everything save independence of judgment, and having 
as his only recompense the one single ambition to be true. 
During these thirty-two years he made and unmade 
hundreds of reputations which the world, by involuntary 
homage rendered to the infallibility of his judgment, has 
left in the place to which he assigned them. It has for- 
gotten one thing, however — to reserve for John Delane a 
corner in its memory. It has forgotten that its duty was 
not to allow him to be so promptly submerged by events. 
It is almost with a feeling of bitterness that I have recalled 
the great career of this toiler, unknown among the 
crowd, and yet so worthy to figure among those who are 
placed in the front ranks of their times. 



ALPHONSO XII. PROCLAIMED KING 77 

On the morning of the death of Mr. Hardman I received 
a very touching letter from Mr. Macdonald, who had 
loved him so much. He invited me to continue till 
further orders the duties of Paris correspondent of the 
paper, with the valuable collaboration of Mr. J. C. Alger, 
who very long occupied, with recognised ability, the 
same post. We set ourselves bravely to our task. They 
were difficult months that followed. My pro visionary 
situation prevented my having the absolute authority 
that was necessary for my work. Furthermore, there 
was a question as to continuing the telegraphic corre- 
spondence, which was still an experiment, the success of 
which was watched everywhere with jealous anxiety. 

The Times remained for some time the only paper in 
the world possessing a private wire, and it was necessary 
to justify this fact to its readers as well as to itself. We 
accomplished this result, however, for to-day the impor- 
tant papers without a special wire are the exception. 

It was in the month of October that Mr. Hardman 
died. As soon as his death was known, on every side 
men from all countries and from all ranks, of the most 
varied talents, origin or position, applied for the post of 
Paris representative of the Times. At every moment 
the papers announced the appointment of one or the 
other, but never, I must say, was I mentioned for the 
post. The Times itself reserved to me a very curious 
surprise. Mr. John Delane was still the editor-in-chief. 
He knew me personally, but it was his rule never to 
write directly to correspondents, but only officially as the 
head of the staff. I had never had any direct personal 
correspondence with him. 

While I was thus filling the vacant post in the interim, 



78 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

I wrote one day a letter entitled "De Profundis," 
predicting the approaching fall of the De Cissy cabinet. 
The letter appeared with comment in a leading article, 
but the next day came a telegram from Mr. Delane asking 
who was the author of it, A similar thing happened 
four or five times, and I learned — which was, indeed, the 
inevitable consequence of anonymity — that the editor of 
the paper himself did not quite know what to think of 
my ability as a writer and a journalist. 

Three months rolled by in this way. During those 
months a him.dred rumours were bruited about, but not 
a word had been exchanged between the journal and my- 
self in regard to my present or future situation. All that 
I knew was that, whosoever might be the head appointed 
over me, I could do nothing but withdraw. My experi- 
ence with Mr, Hardman had enlightened me, and the 
position that I occupied after his death made a similar 
prospect still more intolerable. However, I did nothing 
to put an end to this state of things. I understood that 
the paper, in presence of the most tempting offers, know- 
ing the difficulties that would attend my appointment, 
and realising the necessity of conducting itself according 
to a certain etiquette, as one might say, on account of 
its unique position in the world's press, would take a long 
time to consider. However great my annoyance might 
be, I was prepared to bow before its decision. 

This decision came at the end of the year 1874, The 
service had not suffered. The special wire was proving 
its value more and more; the Paris correspondence, 
sustained by the combined efforts of my collaborator and 
myself, had succeeded in gaining the approbation of our 
chiefs. There appeared to be no reason why the situa- 



ALPHONSO XII. PROCLAIMED KING 79 

tion, in itself provisional and precarious, should not be 
prolonged for some time still. But the 31st of December, 
1874, ushered in an event which put a sudden end to 
the delay of my chiefs. 

The evening of that day I had gone to bed very late. 
The day was icy cold ; snow covered all Paris. Wearied 
out and suffering from a slight fever, I had remained in 
bed, and was on the point of sending to Mr. Alger, to inform 
him of my condition, in order to discuss with him what 
food we could supply to that Minotaur called the private 
wire, when the evening papers were brought to me. 
The Liberie, whose proprietors were then on excellent 
terms with the Spanish dynasty, announced by telegraph, 
and with some words of comment, that a prommciamento, 
provoked by Martinez Campos, had taken place in Spain, 
and that the Prince of Asturias, then in Paris, had been 
proclaimed King under the title of Alphonso XII . 

It was a veritable thunderclap. 

Half an hour later I was at the Spanish Embassy, 
which, at the time, was under M. Abarzuzza, a revolution- 
ary Spaniard of the first water and who was then walking 
in the flower-beds of diplomacy with, one might say, 
the easy lightness of an elephant. He received me very 
ironically, after I had waited for more than an hour — 
a thing not unnatural, however, as some three hun- 
dred people were pressing into his waiting-rooms. I 
had remained below in order to watch those who 
entered or departed by the only door admitting 
to the Embassy, and to see if the Ambassador re- 
ceived many telegrams from abroad. When a revo- 
lution breaks out in a country, as long as the 
Government remains master of the situation its repre- 



8o MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

sentatives are sure to receive ample information; for 
there is nothing more agreeable than preparing bulletins 
of victory. But as soon as the situation changes, it is 
the Ambassadors who send the eager telegrams — ^which 
so often do not reach their destination, however, and to 
which, even when they do, there is frequently no reply. 
On this occasion I saw messengers continually hurrying 
out with half -concealed despatches in their hands, to be 
sent by telegraph, but during all the time that I waited 
I did not see a single telegraphic message entering the 
Embassy. 

When finally I was conducted to the Ambassador, in 
spite of the irony with which he treated the telegram in 
the papers, I had almost made up my mind as to its truth. 
He told me that it was merely an abortive revolution; 
that a few soldiers, speedily silenced, had cried out 
" Viva el Rey,'' but that at that moment — it was then 
half -past six — the excitement had been suppressed, order 
had been reestablished in Madrid, the Government 
having taken energetic measures, and he authorised me 
to telegraph to my paper that the attempt to restore 
the monarchy had been easily suppressed by the 
Government. 

In such a case, as in many others, when it is a question 
of serving his Government or serving himself, an Ambassa- 
dor will never hesitate to throw a journalist quite over- 
board and to sacrifice him body and soul, and, if he can, 
his reputation and his honour, to further his own designs. 
I left the Ambassador convinced that the pronunciamento 
of Martinez Campos had succeeded, and I resolved not 
to repeat the story he had told me, or at least to send 
it with pointed comments. I did not dare to give a 



x\LPHONSO XII. PROCLAIMED KING 8i 

positive form to my conviction by sending an absolutely 
contrary telegram, for I had no positive proof of the 
truth of that of which I was persuaded, and I could not 
discover any justifying facts. I returned discouraged 
enough, for the time at my disposal was short and the 
fever had not yet left me. But I ordered a carriage to 
be in readiness, and with weariness and disappointment 
betook myself to my chamber in a state almost of 
madness, because I could see no means of gaining better 
information. 

Queen Isabella, to be sure, with the Prince of Asturias, 
occupied the Hotel Basilewski, only a few doors from my 
house, but I neither knew her nor her son, nor any 
member of their entourage, and it was not probable — 
indeed, it was scarcely possible — that in the circumstances 
and at such a moment I should be received. Moreover, 
in returning I had instinctively passed by the Avenue 
Kleber in front of the Hotel Basilewski (the Palais de 
Castille), as if to see whether the walls of this house 
could not tell me something. I saw an enormous crowd 
in front of the gates, which were all closed, and some 
policemen who had been sent in haste were with the 
greatest difficulty holding the throng in check. I 
imagined that all the reporters of the Paris papers and 
all the correspondents of foreign papers were mingled 
in this crowd, trampling down the snow. I considered 
it useless to increase the number, yet I was more and 
more in despair at my helplessness. 

On the evening of the 31st of December it was use- 
less to try to find any members of the Government in 
Paris, and as the official seat was at Versailles there 
seemed no issue out of my difficulties. 



82 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

Suddenly an idea flashed across my brain. 

Some time previously I had met at the Spanish Em- 
bassy, then at Versailles, Count de Banuelos, a Senator of 
Spain, who had spoken in warm terms of the Queen and 
her son, who was well acquainted with England, and who 
was a careful reader of the Times. He had been quite 
charming to me. I had called upon him and had been 
introduced to the most delightful of families, consisting 
of a very gracious and affable mother and two charming 
girls. His private residence, 27 Rue de Lisbonne, was 
near at hand. 

It was nine o'clock. 

I rushed down to my carriage and gave the address 
to the coachman. Two minutes after I arrived at the 
Banuelos mansion. As I entered the hall, the Count, 
one of the finest-looking men of his time, in full dress, 
followed by his two daughters, also in evening dress, 
was descending the stairs to enter the salon on the 
ground floor. 

I was extremely embarrassed. I had come by instinct 
at a venture, without plan or forethought and without 
knowing exactly why. 

On seeing these preparations, indicating that the 
Count was about to go to a ball, I understood that I 
could expect no help from him, for at the moment the 
idea came to me that the only way of penetrating into the 
Palace of Castille was to go with him. 

I asked him if he had any details. He replied that he 
had learned the news that very moment, that he had 
previous reasons for thinking it true, and that as he was 
going to a ball at the Duchess de Malakoff's, with his 
two daughters, he intended to congratulate the future 



ALPHONSO XII. PROCLAIMED KING 83 

King on the following day. I had not advanced very- 
far ; the two daughters, who were ready and impatient to 
go, came to ask for their father. 

During this conversation I had become convinced 
that Count Banuelos alone could open to me the doors 
of the Palais de Castille, and that there and there only 
could I hope to obtain any information. But at my 
first suggestion in this direction the two charming girls 
were in consternation. Politics did not much interest 
them. The young Prince of Asturias, whom they greatly 
liked, had been proclaimed King, but the rest mattered 
little, and their dance cards were filled with engagements, 
and their partners were waiting. They were likely to 
pain many and disappoint others, and to be unkind to 
the beautiful and good lady, their hostess, who counted 
upon them. All this drove me to despair. Without 
insisting, I kissed the young ladies, but my face betrayed 
the bitter disappointment I felt as I slowly rose to take 
leave. My disappointment was so obvious that the 
two girls were moved, and simultaneously, without 
understanding why I was so much troubled, they con- 
sented to let their father go. 

It was then for me to refuse. I reproached myself 
with great selfishness for having troubled the two girls, 
without even letting them know why they were called 
upon to sacrifice themselves so completely for me, and I 
prepared to take my departure. 

At that moment the door of the salon opened, and the 
Countess de Banuelos, her face as sympathetic as ever, 
especially resplendent, for the idea of pleasing others 
was to her a very great pleasure, now appeared in full 
dress. No sooner had she learned the difficulty than 



84 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

she immediately solved the entire situation ; she went up 
to her room and came down ready to take her daughters 
to the Duchess de Malakoff's, where she promised to 
await her husband's arrival to relieve her of her charge. 
There, as always, the soft hand of a woman removed the 
obstacles that lay in the pathway of my life. With her 
intervention all difficulties disappeared. We put the 
ladies into their carriage, and the Count and I betook 
ourselves to mine, ordering the coachman to drive to 
the Palais de Castille. 

The crowd there was as great as ever, and the greatest 
precautions had been taken against intruders. Since 
nine that night nobody had been allowed to enter. A 
Commissary of Police, with a sufficiently strong squadron 
of policemen under his orders, was guarding the great 
gateways opening on the courtyard. Our carriage was 
stopped even before we had penetrated the crowd. 

Count Banuelos put out his head, summoned a police- 
man and begged him to send for the Commissary. The 
Count explained who he was, and informed him that he 
was going to salute the King. The Commissary excused 
himself with great politeness, but said that he could not 
allow us to pass. Count Banuelos then gave him his 
card and begged him to send it by one of his men to 
Count Morphy, Governor of the Prince of Asturias, 
henceforth King of Spain. The Commissary of Police 
glanced at the card, bowed on reading the name that it 
bore, and granted the request. Ten minutes later a 
strong cordon of police made a passage in the crowd for 
our carriage, men protected us and defended the gate, in 
order to prevent a sudden rush within the courtyard. I 
was seated in the dark comer of the carriage, and as we 



ALPHONSO XII. PROCLAIMED KING 85 

were driven through the great doorway the gates were 
closed quickly behind us. A journalist who happened 
to be there, however, recognised my driver. 

I heard him crying, "It is Blowitz's carriage," and I 
also caught the sound of other cries and shouts of 
objection as we ascended the stone steps leading to 
the vestibule of the palace. 

There was great commotion everywhere. All the 
intimate friends of the royal palace had been ordered 
thither, and they went and came, joyous salutations 
resounding throughout the house in a fashion that seri- 
ously compromised the etiquette of the Spanish Court. 
Here one felt that beyond all doubt the pronuncia- 
mento had indeed succeeded, and that Alphonso XII. 
had certainly been proclaimed and recognised as King 
of Spain. 

Count Morphy came to meet us. After the introduc- 
tions were over, he said to Count Banuelos: "The King 
will see you with great pleasure ; and as for you, monsieur, 
come in here, I beg you, into the King's study, where he 
has been till just now. I will tell the King that you 
are here. I will explain the object of your visit and will 
return to tell you what he authorises me to say to you." 

All who have had the good fortune to know Count 
Morphy will understand that I had reason to congratulate 
myself on my introduction to one of the most amiable, 
accomplished and refined of gentlemen. Every time my 
good star has brought me since into his presence — at 
Madrid during the first marriage of the King, and at 
Paris during the painful incidents of the return from 
Germany — I recognised in him the same man, as kind, 
as sympathetic and amiable to others as he was at our 



86 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

first meeting and, indeed, at the very first moment of 
that meeting. 

While Count Banuelos, accompanied by Count Morphy, 
ascended to the next floor, where the King was, I entered 
the " study" of the Prince of Asturias, a room to the left 
on the ground floor, in that part of the house devoted 
to Count Morphy. The walls were covered with geo- 
graphical maps and photographs of sovereigns and 
princes and princesses of reigning houses, all bearing 
gracious dedications. On one table was a chart of both 
hemispheres, and on another, covered with books and 
papers, lay a volume of "Tacitus," bearing, in whose 
handwriting I did not know, annotations in Spanish. 
While I was excitedly engaged in noting the pages of 
the book thus lying open under my eyes, eager to 
know what the Prince of Asturias had last read, the 
door opened and some one entered. I thought it was 
Count Morphy. 
. "You see, Count," I said, "I am trying to find the 

passage " I looked up. It was the young King 

himself, who with a smile on his lips and a beaming eye 
stretched out a slightly feverish hand. 

He was dressed with irreproachable taste and wore 
his evening dress, with its narrow silk lapel, with 
youthful and easy grace, while a gardenia adorned 
his buttonhole. 

In spite of his extreme youth, his face was serious, 
his bearing energetic, and a slight line already seamed a 
broad and intelligent brow, surmounted by fine dark 
hair arranged with great care. 

"May your Majesty pardon me," I said; "I thought 
it was Count Morphy." 



ALPHONSO XII. PROCLAIMED KING 87 

The King made a slight movement, his cheeks coloured 
rapidly, and his mouth, a little melancholy even at this 
moment and shaded by a fine youthful mustache, 
began to smile frankly. 

"Excuse me," he said, "for this little movement of 
surprise, but, although I believe I may consider myself 
King of Spain, you are the first stranger who has yet 
greeted me with this title, and I could not repress the 
slight movement which I perceive did not escape you." 

Then, with his back against the fireplace^and with an 
easy and charming simplicity, he told me himself all the 
details of the movement which had just taken place. 
He recalled the proclamation of Martinez Campos, the 
attitude of the troops, the proclamation of the Governor 
of Madrid, the feeling of the populace there and in the 
provinces as indicated to him by telegrams. He then 
spoke of the proclamation that he would himself address 
to the Spanish people, and he outlined to me the entire 
plan of the Constitution which he had conceived and 
was on the point of elaborating. 

"I have been utterly surprised at the event," he said, 
"although I was expecting it. I was afraid it might 
be too long delayed, but my friend, Martinez Campos, 
wished to make me a present on this appropriate day of 
the year, and," he added, laughing, "he could not have 
chosen a finer one. 

"I went out immediately after breakfast to take 
advantage of a moment's sunshine, and when I returned 
I saw people running toward the palace. The great 
gateway was open, with everybody awaiting me on the 
steps. The Queen was at the top of the stairs and coming 
down to throw herself into my arms, while the others 



88 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

cried: 'Vive le Roil' Then I understood, and I had 
all the difficulty in the world to keep from bursting into 
tears, for I understand very well that my poor Spain has 
need of a long rest in order to rise from her ruins, and I 
do not know whether my strength is sufficient." 

After some minutes of silence he took my hand as a 
sign of farewell, and added gaily, "Between ourselves, 
my intention is to avoid all future pronunciamentos, and 
for that purpose I shall see the army immediately on my 
return, and see it often in order to teach it that it has 
only one head, who commands it and its commanders as 
well, and that that head is the King. " 

Count Morphy then came to me, while the young King 
ascended to his apartments on the first floor. I thanked 
him from the bottom of my heart for my good fortune, 
to which he had so powerfully contributed, for the King 
had said to me in our conversation: "My friends, Count 
Banuelos and Count Morphy, both begged me to see you 
myself. They probably thought that you had never seen 
a King so soon after his accession, and that what I told 
you myself would have more authenticity than what I 
might say through them. You see I am not yet at 
that epoch in my reign at which they no longer dare to 
counsel me." 

And I experience great pleasure now, after many 
years, in expressing to those whom Alphonso XII. 
called his two friends the feeling of profound and. affec- 
tionate gratitude which I have ever since this event 
entertained for them. 

Both, happily, while Alphonso XII. reposes in the 
royal vault of Spain, still live, and can accept the 
expression of my enduring gratitude. 







k a : 



I^Ut 






% ^ ■ t'y' 

i<R.0NE r ! , 







<S r. i,nrl<a t," 



THE DE BLOWITZ COAT OF ARMS 



ALPHONSO XII. PROCLAIMED KING 89 

But I admit I did not prolong my conversation with 
Count Morphy, who was himself, in spite of the late hour, 
wearied by many calls upon him. ]\Iessages followed one 
another without cessation, and during the few moments 
that I remained with him several packages of telegrams 
were brought in. 

It was half -past eleven. Count Banuelos had gone, 
I know not how, leaving my carriage at my disposal. I 
ordered my driver to go at a rapid trot, but the 
snow and slipperiness made this impossible, and he 
had to take the greatest precaution in order to avoid 
an accident. It was almost one o'clock when I reached 
the office of the Times. Every moment was precious. 
I sent off two columns of matter, giving the 
principal items and my interview with the King, 
but it was too late to send the details that I have just 
given. 

The following day I remained in bed in a state of 
intense fever, quite unable to write, and the day after that 
it was too late to return to the details of that evening. 
I could therefore only give them in these pages of my 
journalistic life, as connected with the political events 
of the time. 

But although I could not publish everything, what 
appeared in the Times on the following morning was 
absolutely unknown to anybody. The correspondence 
from Madrid was only a repetition of the telegrams in 
other papers, and it was my story, given by the Times, 
which the telegraphic agencies sent throughout the world. 

On the 3rd of January, for the first time since I had 
been imder his orders, Mr. John Delane wrote to me 
direct, and congratulated me upon what he called my 



90 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

real masterly stroke. Mr. Delane usually corresponded 
only with the chiefs of the service, which is sufficiently 
explained by the fact of his enormous correspondence as 
editor-in-chief of the Times. On receiving this letter, so 
replete with enthusiasm on the success obtained on the 
31st of the previous month, I imderstood that this last 
effort, more than all others put together, had triimiphed 
over all the obstacles in the way of my appointment as 
the Times representative at Paris. I awaited with confi- 
dence this appointment, which was officially annoimced 
on the ist of February, 1875. 



CHAPTER V 

The French Scare of 1875 

My desire in this chapter is to narrate in all simplicity 
the story of a historical episode in which I played a 
certain part — an episode that has been travestied by 
almost everybody who has written about it, and that 
has often been spoken of in ignorance. Yet it is one 
which deserves to be placed in its true light before 
posterity. 

In 1875 the Duke Decazes was Minister of Foreign 
Affairs and one of the most conspicuous figures in the 
French political world. From the early days of his 
appointment as Minister he had become famous as a 
clever diplomatist. He had taken possession of the post 
just after the fall of Thiers, succeeding Count de Remusat, 
a man whose diplomatic despatches are still regarded as 
models of their kind. But it must be admitted that the 
difficulties that lay in the path of the Duke Decazes were 
infinitely greater than those against which Count de 
Remusat had to contend. 

As long as Thiers remained in power, Europe was 
convinced that France would never dream of abandoning 
the republican form of government. Europe was aware 
that the home problem in France, in her struggle in 
defense of the Republican idea against all the furious 
hostility of the former parties, was of itself so difficult 

91 



92 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

as to be an earnest of peace. But the accession of the 
Conservatives, and in particular of the Orleanist party, 
aroused abroad a great deal of anxiety. It was feared 
that this party might try to overturn the Republic and 
establish the Monarchy, and that the peace of Europe 
might thereby be troubled. Indeed, the new Government 
seemed at a very early date to be giving some show of 
reason for this dread. The French bishops, in the very 
year of the change, and the Bishop of Nancy in particular, 
published certain pastoral letters which aroused indig- 
nation and the anxiety — perhaps only feigned — of Ger- 
many. The two monarchical houses, the Legitimists and 
the Orleanists, united their forces to a common end; a 
delicate situation was created with Italy; the policy of 
England was opposed; Spanish susceptibilities were 
irritated by foreign suspicion to the effect that the new 
Government favoured the Carlists; and then, little by 
little, as if in the natural course of things, France found 
itself hedged about by a circle of suspicious and dis- 
trustful neighbours. 

This general feeling among European statesmen was 
not lessened by the elevation of Marshal MacMahon to 
the Presidency. It was believed that military reorganisa- 
tion would henceforth be the chief preoccupation of 
France; and when the National Assembly patriotically 
voted the creation of the Fourth Battalion, this vote, 
which had almost been forced upon Parliament, was 
the expression of widespread national anxiety, which 
Germany did not fail to note. 

Therein resides the true origin of the diplomatic 
incident of May, 1875. 

As soon as the creation of this Fourth Battalion was 



THE FRENCH SCARE OF 1875 93 

decided on, the military party in Germany betrayed much 
agitation, of which Count Moltke, the personification, 
after the Emperor, of German mihtary power, was the 
first to give the signal. From the very start the Emperor 
William I. had shown that he was resolved to be the sole 
master in military matters, but he left Prince Bismarck 
almost absolute freedom in all questions not pertaining 
to the army. It was in this way, indeed, that he succeeded 
in soothing the suspicious and the irascible nature of 
his Chancellor. Even at the present day it is impossible 
to say what were the secret aspirations of the Chancellor 
after the treaty of Frankfort, which had sealed the 
triumph of Germany over France. He had certainly 
regarded himself from the outset as the sole founder 
of the new German Empire. His constant utterances 
after his fall prove how deep-rooted was this conviction. 
From the start he was clearly discontented. For a 
long time he had nursed the all but impossible dream of 
expelling Austria from Germany, and of including as 
parts of a single empire, of which he saw the vision, the 
southern States, the Kingdom of Saxony, and all the 
independent States scattered over German territory. 
This end he had constantly pursued amidst the greatest 
obstacles, and this ambitious scheme he had succeeded 
in accomplishing solely by his persevering genius. When 
at the close of the war, after the treaty was signed, 
M. Pouyer-Quertier said to him, "There's no reason 
why you should complain; you have been made a 
Prince," the Chancellor replied, showing him a parch- 
ment roll: "You think, then, I have no reason to 
complain. Certainly I have become a Prince. As for 
my principality, here it is." 



94 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

This secret discontent, this disenchantment of a 
man who thought himself the founder of the empire, 
was instinctively understood by the Emperor. And 
it was as a sop to his overleaping ambition that he 
made Prince Bismarck the real sovereign of Germany, 
reserving for himself only the absolute control of 
the army. 

Prince Bismarck and Count Moltke were never rivals, 
for each kept to his respective field, although the former, 
by his sovereign's pleasure, always wore the uniform 
with characteristic regularity. 

When, therefore, the creation of the Fourth Battalion 
was decided on, and when Count Moltke, who was ever 
most vigilant, saw how the active army of France was 
being strengthened, he communicated his fears not to 
Prince Bismarck, but to the Emperor William himself. 
And Prince Bismarck was well aware that it was of no 
use for him to intervene in any way, either to hasten or 
retard or even to stop the scheme conceived by Count 
Moltke, knowing full well beforehand that all inter- 
vention in this question would be trespassing on for- 
bidden ground. 

Prince Bismarck always energetically protested not 
only against his being considered the author of an 
aggressive scheme formulated in 1875 against France, 
but he has constantly maintained that no such idea 
had occurred to any one in Germany, and that it 
existed only in the malevolent minds of the French. 
The latter, however, claimed that these plans had 
nearly been successful, and were thwarted only by 
Russian intervention. 

The result of this accusation was calculated to preju- 



THE FRENCH SCARE OF 1875 95 

dice the German nation in the eyes of posterity. It 
threw upon Russia the entire honourable responsibility 
of checkmating this design; and on the other hand, 
Prince Bismarck's attitude toward the French, whom 
he treated as calumniators, had the result of detracting 
from the renown of France while it placed Russia in the 
light of a pretentious Don Quixote. 

It is to rectify so many erroneous statements, to 
apportion to each, in all fairness, his responsibilities and 
his successes — it is, in a word, to throw light upon a 
historical event until now left in vague obscurity, that 
I now write these pages. 

All the European foreign offices were secretly informed 
at the beginning of 1875 of the excited state of feeling 
in Germany, caused by the creation, by the French 
chamber, of the Fourth Battalion. 

Prince Bismarck's intentions remained, however, a 
mystery. 

It was well known that the Emperor would brook from 
him no intervention so far as military affairs were con- 
cerned; and the German army corps and the German 
military party looked at matters only from the militaiy 
point of view. Prince Bismarck, who at the time, 
evidently, was of opinion that discretion was the better 
part of valour, assumed an attitude of alert observation, 
gathered from every quarter of Europe all possible 
impressions, and bided his time. 

Thus the various European foreign offices became 
aware of the state of mind of the German military party, 
while they were entirely ignorant of the Chancellor's 
intentions. On the whole, the general impression was 
that Prince Bismarck's decisions would in one way or 



96 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

another triumph, and that, notwithstanding the precision 
of the resolutions formed by the mihtary party, the 
matter would still be left vague and uncertain and never 
develop into anything. This very vagueness was omi- 
nous, though, and the air of mystery which in European 
diplomatic circles surrounded the crisis that had been 
secretly concocted in the German capital was a quite 
natural result. 

I myself was indirectly informed by various people of 
the actual state of affairs. I was asked to watch what 
was going on between Germany and France. I was the 
constant recipient of letters from all over Europe, asking 
if it was true that France was becoming so strong as to 
be a legitimate menace at Berlin and if the Fourth 
Battalion was a dangerous addition to the French Army. 
And I saw that these inquiries usually emanated from 
persons who were the mouthpieces of others. All 
this was further evidence of the general preoccupation 
that existed in all European countries. 

About this epoch I met M. Clasczko, the keen-sighted 
author of " Les Deux Chanceliers." He had just returned 
from a trip through Europe. He had been received 
everyivhere as he deserved to be, for he was a man to 
be trusted, and he had been struck by the widespread 
anxiety that was noticeable among European statesmen. 
He came to see me and we had a long and absolutely 
frank conversation. Our conclusion was that the situa- 
tion demanded my keenest attention, and we parted with 
the agreement to keep each other mutually informed of 
all that came to our notice. 

On the 14th of April, 1875, I met the Duke Decazes 
at a soiree at the house of the Prefect of Police, M. Leon 



THE FRENCH SCARE OF 1875 97 

Renault. The Duke was standing near the door a Httle 
apart from the company, as if preferring to be alone. 
As I went by him I bowed. He stopped me and said: 

" You seem in a great hurry." 

"No," I replied; "but you appear to have something 
on your mind, and I did not wish to be indiscreet." 

"You are paying me a very poor compliment," he 
retorted, "for, if I really have something on my mind, I 
ought not to show it; and if I have not, it is a great 
mistake to appear to have. But confess that you said 
this for a purpose : you wanted to let me know that you 
think I really ought to be anxious." 

" No, Monsieur le Due," I said, " I was not as subtle as 
that. The truth is, that, thinking you were worried, I 
discovered that your face betrayed it." 

" We cannot talk here," said the Duke. "Come to see 
me to-morrow evening and we will have a long talk. In 
my rooms no one will interrupt us." 

On the following evening at nine I was at the house of 
the Duke Decazes. I knew how much he hated being 
forced to talk or to have information wrung from him. 
As this process had always seemed to me childish and 
commonplace, I was tempted less than ever to apply it 
in his case. I therefore produced and read aloud in a 
clear voice the letters that I had received about the 
German military party, the notes I had taken on the 
subject from conversations with foreign diplomatists 
and even with members of the Paris diplomatic corps, 
and in particular the very characteristic words of 
M. Clasczko. 

After listening for some time, the Duke said : 

"I really have not anything to tell you. You know 



98 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

all that has come to my knowledge, and my information 
so strongly corroborates yours that there is only one 
conclusion to be drawn, namely, that every foreign office 
in Europe is preoccupied with our relations with Germany. 
I must add, however, to what you have said merely this : 
Hohenlohe came here and tried to turn the conversation 
upon our armaments and the anxiety which they are 
causing in Germany. I tried to turn the subject, as it is 
too risky to discuss. But I know Hohenlohe well, and 
I know his orders. He will come back, and if I continue 
to avoid the topic, and refuse all explanations, he will 
arrange to bring about a coup d'etat of some kind or other. 
He will succeed in obtaining leave of absence, and will 
manage to leave Paris in such a way as to compromise 
the situation, for his presence here is a gage of peace. 
What troubles me is that the Germans still surround 
their plans with so much mystery that the world con- 
tinues to be ignorant of them, and that these plans may 
come to maturity at any moment, when it will be too 
late to do anything. 

"The Russian Emperor thinks of going to Berlin at 
the beginning of May, and everything that is possible will 
be done to keep the matter dark. The Emperor will, 
of course, be told about these plans, but he will pretend 
that he does not know about them and refuse to believe 
them; and he will not venture to allude to them so long 
as they are not mentioned to him. How, indeed, can 
a sovereign allow another sovereign, a friendly one, to 
suppose that he regards the latter capable of such an act 
of aggression against a vanquished and disarmed people — ■ 
an aggression which, in the present circumstances, would 
be little short of barbarous ? So that all possible secrecy 



THE FRENCH SCARE OP 1875 99 

will be kept at Berlin during the Emperor's stay, and if 
the matter should come to the surface at all it will be 
after he has gone. 

"For this reason I think that there is only one way to 
prevent the Russian Emperor from being compelled, while 
at Berlin, to hold his peace. I will tell you how. Some 
authoritative journal, known throughout the world, 
should expose the entire situation, and this journal, I 
need hardly tell you, should be the Times. 

"No French journal could possibly do it, for the 
Germans would have the right to regard it as a provoca- 
tion, and no one would believe the statement abroad. 
To adopt such a course would therefore be a very great 
mistake. Nor could such an exposure be made in an 
Italian journal; those friendly to us have no authority. 
In Austria no important paper would care or dare to do 
it ; and the Russian press is obviously out of the question, 
as its intervention, even were the censors to allow it, 
would put the Russian Emperor in a false position at 
Berlin. The Times is the only paper in the world which 
can possibly publish such information with any telling 
and authoritative effect. And that is what I ask you 
to do." 

"I am perfectly ready, as far as I am concerned," I 
said, "to undertake this work, but you will understand 
that the subject is too important for me to be able 
to guarantee publication without previously inform- 
ing the Times and obtaining its assent. I shall write 
to-morrow to Mr. John Delane, and act according to 
his orders." 

I did so. I placed the exact situation before Mr. 
Delane and asked explicitly for permission to write a 

LofC. 



loo MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

letter publicly denouncing the plan of aggression against 
France conceived by the German military party. 

Mr. John Delane replied that my commimication had 
greatly interested, even moved him, but he said that 
such an insinuation against a civilised nation could not 
be risked by a paper like the Times unless it were backed 
up in the most positive and official manner, so that, if 
called to account, absolute and crushing proof could be 
adduced in reply. I showed his letter to the Duke 
Decazes, and it caused him much disappointment, 
although he agreed with me that Mr. John Delane 
could scarcely act differently. He began to walk 
up and down the room in great agitation, constantly 
repeating : 

"Time presses. We must act, or it will be too late. 
I persist in my idea: the Times is the only paper which 
can do what I ask; and if it does not do it, all may be 
lost." Then turning to me suddenly, he said, "What 
Mr. Delane wants, then, is information so authorita- 
tive that he may be sure he is acting on the best faith 
in the world?" 

"Certainly," I replied; "that is Mr. Delane's idea." 

"Very well," he said; "come back and see me this 
evening." 

On returning in the evening I found him in one of the 
small first-floor rooms, where he was alwavs to be seen 
when alone. 

"Do you think," he asked, "that Mr. Delane would 
publish your letter if you assured him on your word 
of honour that you referred to an absolutely authen- 
tic document?" 

" I am sure of it," I replied. " The day when my word 




PRINCE HOHENLOHE 
[Prom an autographed photo presented to M. de Blowitz] 



THE FRENCH SCARE OF 1875 loi 

of honour is not enough for Mr. Delane he will no longer 
find me under his orders." 

"Then," said the Duke Decazes, "I am going to do 
something that is absolutely unusual. I am going to 
communicate to you an official and confidential docu- 
ment; but in so acting I am convinced that I am acting 
in my country's interest and in that of Europe. I must 
ask you, though, to swear to me that, in my lifetime, you 
will not say that I have shown you this document unless 
you are compelled for the honour of your paper to do so. 
Not that I fear to confess to all the world what I am going 
to do, but because I know the passions that exist all 
about us. If the misfortune that I fear should occur, I 
should be blamed for not having warded it off; and if I 
succeed in preventing it, it will be said to have existed 
only in my imagination. For this reason I ask you to 
keep your own counsel as to our interview — at least as 
long as I am in this world. If you survive me, I authorise 
you to speak ; for by that time I hope the hour of justice 
will have arrived for me, and my act will be seen to be 
that of an ardent patriot, anxious only to defend his 
country against a fresh calamity." 

With these words the Duke took out of a drawer in a 
small desk that stood at the right of the chimney-piece 
a rather large paper note-book and handed it to me. 

The book contained a despatch from the Count de 
Gontaut-Biron, French Ambassador at Berlin. In this 
despatch the Count de Gontaut-Biron, who w^as always 
most highly respected by all those who knew him, had 
given the Duke Decazes a detailed account of his inter- 
view with M. de Radowitz, whom he bad met at a ball. 

M. de Radowitz, having turned the theme of conversa- 



102 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

tion to the famous Fourth Battalion and the French 
armaments, which were arousing the anxiety of the 
German Government, revealed to him the plans 
conceived against France by the German military 
party. M. de Radowitz stated that Coiint Moltke 
had great influence over the Emperor and had proved 
to him the necessity of an immediate war with 
France. The German armies were to invade France, 
crush instantly all opposition, press on to Paris, invest 
the capital, and take up a position on the plateau of 
Avron, whence they could overlook Paris and, if need be, 
destroy it. This done, Germany would dictate a treaty 
reducing France to absolute subjection for many years. 
It would insist on a permanently reduced army, impose a 
war indemnity of 10,000,000,000 (ten milliards) of francs, 
payable in twenty annuities, without any clause allowing 
payment to be made in advance, with annual interest at 
five per cent., and keep garrisons in the principal towns 
of France until the whole sum should be paid. Count 
de Gontaut-Biron had scarcely been able to maintain his 
sang-froid during this revelation. He pretended to 
M. de Radowitz that he did not believe it, and he had 
thus forced him to confirm his words in the most absolute 
fashion. He left M. de Radowitz in the greatest excite- 
ment, for he felt sure that the latter had spoken by order, 
although he could not conceive who had commanded it, 
or why. He believed that the idea was to frighten 
France, and to force that country into some overtures of 
explanation which would reassure Germany. But he 
left no stone unturned to investigate the matter and 
corroborate this information. The result of his inquiries 
was that he had become certain that the scheme had been 



THE FRENCH SCARE OF 1875 103 

concocted only by the military party, and that Prince 
Bismarck, as far as his responsibility went, was an 
absolute stranger to the plan. 

As may be easily imagined, I was profoundly impressed 
by the reading of this document. In tones betraying my 
emotion I returned the note-book, and, thanking the 
Duke, said : 

"I will write the letter, and I swear to you to do all 
that is in my power to obtain its publication." 

On going home, without a moment's delay I wrote a 
letter revealing the entire plan of the German military 
party as told by M. de Gontaut-Biron from the informa- 
tion given by M. de Radowitz. And on receiving this 
letter, Mr. John Delane, frightened at its contents, took 
measures himself to discover what was true and what was 
false in the terrible scheme thus circumstantially revealed. 

Some days went by without the letter's appearing. I 
began to be apprehensive, when suddenly, on May 4, 1875, 
it was published under the title, "The French Scare." 

The effect was instantaneous and universal. The 
Emperor Alexander H. no longer had any excuse, during 
his approaching visit to Berlin, not to know all about the 
matter; and indeed, in the midst of the excitement 
aroused by my letter, the German Chancellor himself 
had nothing left to do but to bring before the Russian 
Emperor the question of this bellicose scheme imputed 
to Germany, and to wash his hands of it. 

The German Emperor, too, on meeting M. de Gontaut- 
Biron, said to him, "They are trying to embroil 
matters between us, but fortunately they have not 
succeeded." 

Prince Gortchakoff lost no time in addressing to the 



I04 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

Russian representatives a circular beginning "Peace 
is henceforth assured." Lord Derby, on his part, assured 
Englishmen of the same fact. 

But the French press, mistaking altogether the motives 
which had dictated the Times letter, and quite without 
reflection, heaped upon its author the most incredible 
insults. The German press, seeing what had been the 
effects of it, echoed the attacks of the French news- 
papers, until the latter, finally detecting the real motive 
that had inspired the letter, ceased their diatribes. Six 
weeks later, as I was entering the Countess de Valon's 
salon with a friend, a Frenchman who was there asked 
my friend how much Prince Bismarck had paid me for 
"publishing the scare letter." 

This is sufficient to show to what degree of blindness 
my act of loyalty had driven the French press, an act 
made possible by the courageous and enlightened 
support of my chief. 

I confess that the following letter from Mr. John Delane 
made up for all these attacks and insults : 

"May 1 8. 

''My Dear Mr. de Blowitz: I did not need your very 
interesting letter of the 14th inst. to appreciate the entire 
success of that startling public letter by which you 
alarmed Europe to a sense of its imminent danger. It 
has been of the greatest public service, and, as I sincerely 
believe, has done even much to spare the world the horrors 
of another war. No greater honour than to have aided 
in averting war is within the reach of the journalist. 

"As to the French and German press, I hope you 
have philosophy enough to bear their attacks with con- 
temptuous equanimity. ' ' 



THE FRENCH SCARE OF 1875 105 

On December 17, 1878, I was dining at the Cafe Voisin. 
General Leflo entered and sat down at a table in a comer 
close by. As I had finished my dinner, I joined him. 
General Leflo had been French Ambassador at St. 
Petersburg during the period of the incidents called by 
the Times "The French Scare." He, better than any 
one, was able to give me details of the incident in which 
I had been myself so closely associated. The following 
is a faithful account of what he said to me : 

"I was in Paris when the incident of 1875 first began 
to arouse the attention of European statesmen. I called 
on the Duke Decazes and took the liberty of telling him 
that, to my mind, his fears in reference to an attack by 
Germany upon France were greatly exaggerated. The 
Duke replied that he had in his possession certain trust- 
worthy documents which appeared to him to justify all 
his fears. As a result of this conversation I was to 
return as soon as possible to St. Petersburg. But before 
my departure I wished to call on Prince Orloff, then 
Russian Ambassador in Paris, to let him know that I was 
going back to Russia. 

" 'I have just mentioned your name in a telegram to 
Prince Gortchakoff, ' said Prince Orloff to me. ' I am 
quite of your opinion that the fears of the Duke Decazes 
are chimerical, and I do not believe that any one now 
thinks of attacking France. ' 

"From Prince Orloff I went to the Elysee to see the 
Marshal, for I wished to tell him, as well as the Duke 
Decazes, of the encouraging impression left upon me by 
Prince Orloff's words. The Marshal was out, so I pro- 
ceeded to the house of the Duke Decazes. He, too, was 
away from home. Returning to the Elysee, I found an 



io6 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

aide-de-camp of the President, whom I entrusted with a 
message for the latter to the effect that, as I did not wish 
to leave Paris for my post without seeing him, I would 
call again on the morrow, postponing my journey for a 
day. The same evening I received from the Marshal a 
note fixing an appointment for nine o'clock on the 
following morning. I went there at the hour named. 
In all frankness I told him what I myself thought, adding 
that my opinion had been corroborated by other men of 
standing ; and I protested against the views held not only 
by him but by his Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Duke 
Decazes, as well as by some other French statesmen. 

"'You seem to take the whole matter very easily,' 
said the Marshal, and with a key attached to his watch- 
chain he opened a drawer and took out a packet of 
papers. 

"These papers were official documents of all kinds, 
including some military reports to the Government and 
to the President. They came from all the French military 
attaches in Europe, and testified to the recent activity 
of Germany in provisioning its troops, in purchasing 
horses, and in storing up fresh ammunition. It was 
stated that all these horses and this ammunition had 
been transferred to the neighbourhood of the French 
frontier. They contained the fullest and most astound- 
ing details as to the process of mobilisation which had 
been secretly going on in Germany for some time. 

" It took me more than an hour to look through these 
documents with care, and I made a brief summary of 
them, which I submitted to the Marshal, and which I 
wished to take with me to St. Petersburg. 

"The following morning I set out. It was a tiresome 



THE FRENCH SCARE OF 1875 107 

journey, especially for a man of my age. I had seen 
Prince Orloff before leaving, and, with the consent of the 
Marshal and the Duke Decazes, had told him what I had 
just learned and how I had begun to share their fears. 
He entrusted me with a long despatch for Prince Gort- 
chakoff , the exact contents of which were not known to 
me. On arriving at St. Petersburg I was so exhausted 
by my journey that, in sending to Prince GortchakofE the 
despatch, I excused myself for not calling upon him 
immediately, and said that I should go to see him within 
forty-eight hours. 

"But on the morrow, before I was up — on account of 
my fatigue I had remained in bed longer than usual — 
my man-servant came to tell me that Prince Gortchakoff 
was in the salon. I dressed in haste and went down to 
see him. 

" ' I came to inquire about your health, ' he said, ' and 
to talk over Prince Orloff's despatch. I am rather of 
his opinion that your fears are a little exaggerated. It 
is true enough that they are angry in Berlin at the energy 
you are displaying in repairing your disasters, and at 
the remarkable result you have already obtained in the 
short space of four years, while other nations would have 
spent the time in thinking matters over. But anger 
such as this does not mean that they think of attacking 
you, and I really believe that you insult the national 
honour of our time by imagining that they entertain in 
Germany any such intention. ' 

" I made no reply. This was clearly the part that 
Prince Gortchakoff might be expected to play. He 
knew that it was not by adding fuel to the fire of our 
anxiety that the situation could be made less serious, or 



io8 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

that minds could be calmed. Instead of discussing the 
matter with him, I asked to be immediately presented 
to the Emperor. The Prince promised to arrange the 
matter that very day. 

" The Emperor had the very correct rule, I well knew, 
of always replying on the following day to any request 
for an audience made by a member of the diplomatic 
corps. When three days went by without an answer, I 
began to be greatly troubled. I took his silence as 
evidence of his slight regard for French anxiety at the 
moment, and my distress increased with my irritation. 

" It was in this state of mind that I met Prince Gort- 
chakoff again. I confessed to him how anxious I felt, 
and I told him how much I feared a failure in my mission 
of interesting the Czar in my country. 

" My words evidently had their effect, for on that very 
evening I was told that the Emperor would receive me 
on the following day. I was there at the appointed hour. 
The Emperor, although amiable, was a little cool in his 
manner. Even before I had begun to speak of my 
mission, he said to me, as if echoing Prince Gortchakoff's 
words: 'I know what brings you here, but I hope that 
your fears are exaggerated. People at Berlin are cer- 
tainly startled at your extraordinary activity, but that 
doesn't mean that they are thinking of attacking you. ' 

" This language frightened me. The Czar had spoken 
in a tone of such evident firmness that it seemed as though 
nothing could change his opinion. I felt that it was the 
expression of an irrevocable foregone conclusion in favour 
of Germany, and that any words of mine would be taken 
only as a calumny against that country's honour. But 
I could not hesitate. I placed before him all the com- 



THE FRENCH SCARE OF 1875 109 

munications shown to me by Marshal MacMahon, the 
reports of the mihtary attache's and Foreign Ministers, 
and without comment I merely begged him to look them 
through. He did so with some attention and his face 
betrayed his emotion. 

"I then began to speak. I admitted to him that 
France was weak, it was true, but just then in such a 
state of mind that so perfidious, so barbarous an attack 
by Germany would drive it to exasperation; that if the 
worst should really happen it would be a war to the death 
without quarter, and that all Europe would be dragged 
into this struggle of extermination. I was so deeply 
affected by the sense of the enormous responsibility that 
weighed upon me that I burst into tears. 

"The Emperor rose quickly. He came up to me, and, 
drawing himself up to his full height, with one hand he 
took mine, and placing the other, with a dignified and 
friendly gesture, upon my shoulder, said, in a voice of 
restrained emotion: 

"'Becalm. You shall not be attacked. I promise 
you to prevent any such scheme. Europe will never see 
such a spectacle ! ' 

" My joy at these words was profound. A man so 
omnipotent as Alexander H., a man so alive to the sense 
of sovereign responsibility, could not possibly have used 
this language without being sincere. In circumstances 
like these the word of a sovereign was more sacred, more 
inviolable, than any treaty. His promise, 'Europe will 
never see such a spectacle,' was an encouragement in 
which I could have absolute confidence. I left the royal 
presence relieved of an enormous weight. Hurrying 
home, I sent to the Duke Decazes a despatch in cipher. 



no MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

warning him to have it read in his presence by his most 
confidential clerks; and I so wrote it that if deciphered 
in portions by several persons there cotdd be no possible 
danger of its sense being indiscreetly detected. 

"The reply of the Duke Decazes came very speedily. 
It was full of the greatest admiration for and gratitude 
toward Alexander II. It said that France, under the 
shelter, as it were, of this imperial utterance, might 
await the future in all confidence, and bare its face to 
the storm without fear. But in a private portion the 
Duke added: 'It must not be forgotten that the war, 
now being secretly planned in Berlin in so much mystery 
and silence, might at any time burst forth suddenly, and 
as the Czar has solemnly affirmed that this shall not hap- 
pen. His Majesty may feel called upon to draw his own 
sword to keep the promise of his inviolable word. His 
Majesty, in the enthusiastic expression of his generous 
soul, has perhaps not thought of such a contingency ; but 
we should be disloyal and ungrateful to His Majesty if, 
while using the greatest prudence, we did not make this 
possibility quite clear.' 

"This telegram worried me considerably. I wondered 
if the Duke Decazes was not carrying a little too far his 
feelings of loyalty and gratitude to the Czar, and I also 
wondered if, in communicating this excessive scruple, 
I might not upset all that I had done and expose France 
again to isolation. Looking through the despatch again, 
I marked with a red pencil the confidential passages 
in order to leave them out when I read it to Prince 
Gortchakoff. 

"Simultaneously with, this despatch, I received a copy 
of a conversation between Count de Gontaut-Biron and 



THE FRENCH SCARE OF 1875 m 

M. de Radowitz, and a circumstantial account of a min- 
isterial council held in Berlin, in the Emperor William's 
presence when Coimt Moltke had spoken as follows: 'It 
is not peace that we have made, but only a truce. To-day 
France is without an army and without money. In spite 
of its all but inexhaustible prosperity, it could not pos- 
sibly raise the sums necessary to organise a resistance 
worthy of the name. It would certainly try to fight — 
and fortmiately, too, for us, for we would not think of 
attacking a nation unable to do its best to resist us. 
But now, whatever the resistance, our success is certain. 
A new war is only a question of time, and if we post- 
pone it for eighteen months, France, with the marvellous 
resources which it has at its disposal, will have so far 
recovered from its disasters as to be able to set against 
us an army equal to our own. Its frontiers will have 
been reestablished, and in eighteen months it will have 
as strong an artillery as we have to-day. It is a matter 
of whether we wish to sacrifice or not 100,000 men, 
for that is what will be inevitable if we put matters 
off. From every point of view, military, political, 
philosophic, and even Christian, an immediate war is a 
necessity.' 

"Taking the diplomatic paper which contained these 
words, the military reports and the despatch of the 
Duke Decazes, I called unexpectedly upon Prince Gort- 
chakoff . I foimd him lying on a sofa, laid up with an 
injured foot. Seeing him in this state, I was about to 
withdraw, but the Prince insisted that I should stay. 
I began to read to him the despatch from the Duke 
Decazes, of course leaving out the marked passages. 
But the room was not well lighted, and I stumbled at a 



112 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

certain place. The Prince noticed that I was not read- 
ing it all, and interrupting me, said : 

" 'My dear General, you really believe that Germany is 
planning to attack your country because you are now 
imable to defend yourself successfully; and you think, 
therefore, that this must at any cost be prevented, lest a 
great blot should stain the history of this country. So 
be it, but in these circumstances all hesitation is a crime, 
and reticence would be bad policy. I know my master. 
I know how he is touched by confidence placed in him, 
if only it be absolute and without reserve. He did not 
speak as he did lightly, for he has since repeated his words 
to me. Give me, then, the whole of your document, 
and I will send it to him this very moment, without even 
looking at it myself.' 

"I hesitated no longer, but handed the paper to him 
just as it was. The Prince wrote a note there in my 
presence. He put the manuscript with the note into an 
envelope, and calling an aide-de-camp, sent the package 
to the Emperor. 

"I confess that on leaving Prince Gortchakoff I was in 
what may be called a 'state of mind.' The Emperor was 
to leave for Berlin within four days. I could not ask for 
another audience. Prince Gortchakoff was laid up at 
home, and it was not even certain that he would be 
able to accompany the Czar. How, then, could I learn 
the effect produced upon him by the despatch from the 
Duke Decazes with its dangerous passages ? I was myself 
ill on the following day, having been overexcited by the 
events which had taken place, and I was obliged to remain 
in bed. My secretary brought me the news that the 
Emperor was to go that very evening to a soiree at the 



THE FRENCH SCARE OF 1875 113 

Princess Yousoupoff's. I sent for my doctor, and after 
much persuasion induced him to let me get up and go 
to this party. I arrived after the entertainment had 
begun, but I was scarcely inside the great gallery when I 
saw the Emperor entering it at the opposite end. I 
noticed that he was looking at me. Then he made a 
slight sign of recognition and came slowly toward me 
between the hedge, so to speak, of guests that was formed 
on either side. As he advanced, I felt myself turning 
pale. But when he had come up he stretched out both 
hands, and as everybody had discreetly gone a short 
distance away, said: 

" * I have been greatly touched by your confidence. Do 
not regret it. You may be sure that all that is humanly 
possible I shall do. You will not be attacked unawares. 
I swear it.' 

"Two days afterward I was present among the staff 
officers near the Emperor during a review. At its close, 
and as I passed before the Emperor to take leave of him, 
he stopped me with a sign, and said: 'Adieu, General; 
oil, niiciix, an revoir. Rassiirez voire gouvernement.' 
Then, with a kindly smile, he recalled the confidential 
passages in the despatch from the Duke Decazes, saying : 
'Tell the Duke Decazes he may be tranquil. There 
will be no surprise.' 

"There," concluded General Leflo, turning to me; 
"now you have the complete and detailed account of my 
personal action in the affair of 1875. The rest took 
place in Berlin, for on the morrow the Emperor left St. 
Petersburg, and I did not see him again." 

If the preceding narrative has been read with attention, 
the conclusion will appear obvious. As has been seen, 



114 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

it was M. de Radowitz who revealed to M. Gontaut-Biron 
the plan of the military party in all its details. Such an 
indiscretion as this on the part of a German diplomatist, 
unless it was committed by order, would have drawn 
down upon him the severest punishment. But who 
could possibly have ordered this indiscretion ? Certainly 
not Count Moltke, who was pursuing his plan of attack 
with his characteristic tenacity. It was Prince Bismarck 
— and the fact does him the greatest honour — who 
ordered M. de Radowitz to let M. de Gontaut-Biron know 
what was going on in Germany. Prince Bismarck knew 
that the Emperor WiUiam I. had been much influenced 
by Count Moltke' s pertinacity. He knew that on the 
military ground there was no chance of his intervention. 
But he saw, not only that the rights of nations and 
national honour forbade the execution of this scheme 
as an ineradicable blot on the pages of history, but 
also that politically — ^from the point of view, that is, 
of the attitude of England and Russia — such an en- 
terprise might turn out to be most disastrous for 
Germany. Austria, moreover, had not forgotten the 
defeat of 1866, and there was the danger that it 
might join Russia and England to prevent such 
an attack on France. Prince Bismarck, therefore, 
thought that the best way to cut short a project of which 
he was himself no longer the master was to reveal it to 
official Europe and let the force of public opinion take 
its dissuasive course. 

It has been said that this action on his part was 
traitorous toward the German military party. But that 
is absurd. There was a consideration in Prince Bismarck's 
mind above and beyond this. It was the historic honour 



THE FRENCH SCARE OF 1875 115 

of the German nation and the danger to which, in spite 
of French weakness, his country might be exposed. 
Moreover, all who remarked that during the Berlin 
Congress M. de Radowitz, as secretary, was seated for 
an entire month directly in front of Prince Bismarck, 
that the Prince treated him always with the utmost 
kindness, and that until Prince Bismarck's fall he was 
the recipient of constant favours from the Chancellor, 
perceived clearly enough in these marks of special honour 
the evidence of M. de Radowitz 's great role during the 
crisis of 1875. There can be no doubt that the latter 
acted by special order, and that this historic episode 
occurred as I have related it. The hostile projects of 
Count Moltke remained unfulfilled only because of 
Prince Bismarck's failure to cooperate. He undermined 
them by bold but direct tactics, which were quite in 
keeping with his well-known audacity. 



CHAPTER VI 

The Berlin Congress 

The publication, in the Times, of the Treaty of BerHn 
at the very hour it was being signed in Berlin, was, 
according to universal opinion, the greatest journalistic 
feat on record, and that publication, due to me, is the 
subject of the chapter I am writing. I say this plainly 
because I feel no pride about it. To have published an 
important document before anybody else does not make 
you a great writer or even a great journalist, and I would 
rather have written "The Battle of Dorking" than have 
published all the secret documents in the world. Any 
journalist by profession might have done what I did if 
he had said "I will do it," and had thought over the 
ways of accomplishing his scheme. It was a feat in 
which neither talent nor science stood for anything. 

The story I am about to tell must not therefore be 
ascribed to vanity, but should merely be considered as 
the fulfilment of a duty to my journalistic profession, 
to which I am devoted. People ought to know by what 
efforts of imagination and perseverance one sometimes 
succeeds in keeping them posted, especially as the 
reader who runs his eye over a document paraded in the 
columns of a newspaper is apt to fancy that it had 
simply to be asked for or bought. Now, if documents 
had merely to be bought, nothing would be easier than 
to procure them. Rich papers would purchase them, 

ii6 




M. DE BLOWITZ IN 187S AT THE BERLIN CONGRESS 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 117 

while the others, as is customary, would reprint them 
gratis without informing their readers from what source 
they were derived. But this is not enough. To be able 
to pay for a document is not sufficient, for in the majority 
of cases bought documents are spurious ; men who possess 
genuine ones refuse to sell them. I will, therefore, 
relate the history of the acquisition of a docu- 
ment which necessitated not only the spending of money, 
but long preliminary labour, the warding-off of failure, 
and the throwing off the scent of those who sought to 
discover the origin of the communication. I give the 
story because it ought not to die with me, and because 
it belongs to the history of modem journalism. 

In October, 1877, on calling one morning on the 
Duke Decazes, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in the large 
office he occupied on the first floor at the Quai d'Orsay, 
he said to me : 

"There will soon be a Congress for the settlement of 
the Eastern question. I shall be the representative of 
France. I shall then have been Member of Parliament, 
Ambassador, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Plenipo- 
tentiary representing France at an International Diplo- 
matic Congress. People will no longer be able to twit 
me with not having worthily upheld the name I bear, 
and with not having at least endeavoured to give fresh 
lustre to it." 

Then, after a few minutes' silence, he added : 

"You ought to go to the Congress; it will be very 
interesting; and I will do all I can, consistently with my 
duty, to facilitate your task." 

"You forget. Monsieur le Due," I said, "that rather 
more than two years ago there appeared in the Times a 



ii8 MEMOIRS OP M. de BLOWITZ 

letter entitled 'A French Scare,' denouncing the war- 
like projects of the German military party, and stating 
that the author of that letter could not go to Berlin, 
where the Congress will be held, without incurring the 
risk of much that is disagreeable." 

" I am sure that nothing will be done to remind you of 
that, and I still think that, if you are told to go, you should 
willingly do so." 

By a rather curious coincidence I had received a call 
that very afternoon from a young foreigner, whom a 
friend warmly recommended to me. This young man 
had a pleasing, intelligent countenance, and impressed 
me very favourably. He told me he had left the country 
because his brother had been induced to gamble, had 
lost all that both of them possessed, had victimised 
people, and had gone away leaving his debts; that he 
himself, though clear of it all, had been forced to emigrate 
to escape the shame of constantly hearing abused the 
name of his brother, whom he nevertheless dearly loved. 
What he now wanted was to earn a small sum which 
would enable him to go to the colonies, to try and 
make a fortune and to retrieve his name by paying his 
brother's debts. 

The story was quite true. This honest young man 
interested me very much. I felt that he was ready to 
make the greatest efforts to attain his object, and I 
promised to see what I could do for him. 

I made several applications in his favour, but without 
success. This was all the more strange, as the young 
man had an excellent bearing, was very intelligent, spoke 
several languages, wrote them fairly well, and would 
have made the most valuable secretary imaginable. 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 119 

He called on me several times and I became more and 
more interested in him. One morning when he arrived 
I had just had a letter informing me that there was an 
idea of sending me to the Berlin Congress, the meeting 
of which had been delayed for a time, but which was 
certain to take place in the course of that year. It was 
then January, Marshal MacMahon had been defeated, 
and the Duke Decazes had fallen. There was an 
attempt to put forward the Duke as Plenipotentiary, 
M. Waddington, Minister of Foreign Affairs, being too 
much of a novice in diplomacy to assume such a post. 

I knew M. Waddington well. M. Dufaure had deputed 
me two days before the formation of his Cabinet to ask 
him whether he would consent to take over the portfolio of 
the Foreign Office, and I am bound to say that, although 
Madame Waddington had strongly dissuaded him, he 
had nevertheless accepted. He was very nervous at 
first, and afraid of opening his mouth lest he should 
commit a blunder. I knew, therefore, that there was 
no relying on him at Berlin for helping me in my 
task, and that for fear of compromising his diplomatic 
fame he would maintain absolute reticence. 

I reflected that in going to Berlin I should encounter 
the hostility of the Chancellor and most of his supporters, 
as they resented my letter of 1875. The English diplo- 
matists make it a rule to communicate nothing; the 
Russians would distrust the correspondent of an English 
journal ; Count Corti, if it were he who represented Italy, 
would be exposed to a violent opposition, and would not 
risk receiving blows by making confidences; and the 
Austrians, hedged in by Germany and Russia, would not 
venture to open their mouths. As for the Turks, like all 



I20 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

those marked out beforehand for victims, they would be 
afraid of their own shadow, even if they had a shadow, of 
which I was not certain. 

On reflection I felt that I was going to make a grand 
fiasco at Berlin and compromise a career which, tolerably 
brilliant at the outset, had already brought on me much 
resentment, as well as calttmnies and attacks of which I 
have not ceased to be proud. The idea was unbearable, 
and I felt that, in the interest of the Times as well as in 
my own interest, it would be better for me not to go to 
the Congress. 

Just then my young friend was announced. I had not 
seen him for a long time and had positively allowed 
him to slip my memory. Here I must confess that I 
have a theory which will perhaps be ridiculed, but which 
has governed my whole life. I believe in the constant 
intervention of a Supreme Power, directing not only our 
destiny in general, but such actions of ours as influence 
our destiny. When I see that nothing in nature is left 
to chance, that immutable laws govern every movement, 
that the faintest spark that glimmers in the firmament 
disappears and reappears with strict punctuality, I 
cannot suppose that anything to do with mankind goes 
by chance, and that every individuality composing it 
is not governed by a definite and inflexible plan. The 
great men whose names escape oblivion are like the 
planets which we know by name, and which stand out 
from among the multitude of stars without names. We 
know their motions and destinies. We know at what 
time the comet moving in infinite space will reappear, 
and that the smallest stars, whose existence escapes us, 
obey the fixed law which governs the universe. Under 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 121 

various names, in changing circumstances, by successive 
and coordinate evolutions, the great geniuses known to 
the world, those whose names have escaped oblivion, 
reappear. Moses is reflected in Confucius, Mohammed 
in John Huss, Cyrus lives again in Caesar, and Ccesar in 
Napoleon, Attila is repeated in Peter the Great, and 
Frederick II. in Bismarck, Louis le Debonnaire in Philip 
VII., and Catalina in Boulanger. Charlemagne and 
Joan of Arc alone have not yet reappeared, the one to 
revive authority and the other la piideur. . . . Every- 
thing moves by a fixed law, and man is master of his 
own destiny only because he can accept or refuse, by 
his own intervention and action, the place he should fill 
and the path traced out for him by the general decree, 
which regulates the movements of every creature. 

By virtue of this theory, it will be easily understood 
that I have always endeavoured to divine the intentions 
and designs of the Supreme Will which directs us. I 
have always sought not to thwart that ubiquitous guid- 
ance, but to enter on the path which it seemed to point 
out to me. As at the very time the idea of going to 
Berlin plunged me in despair my door opened and I saw 
my young friend enter, it struck me that he was destined 
to assist me in the accomplishment of the task devolving 
on me at Berlin. 

" You are still bent on undertaking whatever is honestly 
possible to effect your purpose?" I asked. 

" I am," he replied. 

" Then call on me again in a few days. " 

I went to see Prince Hohenlohe, the German Ambassa- 
dor to the French Republic. 

"Your Highness," I said (this title appertains to him 



122 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

as a descendant of a mediatised family), " I shall probably 
be deputed to attend the Berlin Congress as correspond- 
ent of my paper. I know there is a lively recollection 
of a letter published in 1875 against the projects of the 
German military party, and, as your Highness has been 
friendly to me, I have come to ask whether or not you 
would advise me to go to Berlin, or whether I am not 
liable to meet with a reception that would render my 
mission very difficult, if not impossible. ' ' 

The Prince was silent a few seconds, 

"I must reflect," he said; "come again in three days." 

Three days meant that he would make inquiries 
at Berlin. 

When I returned he said: 

"I have reflected. You can go to Berlin. You will 
be well received." 

Two days later my young friend called again. "This," 
I said, "is what I want you to do. You must leave 
Paris in a few days. Here is a letter of introduction, 
from a friend of mine not concerned in politics, to the 
private secretary of a foreign statesman who will cer- 
tainly represent his country at the Berlin Congress. 
You will present yourself with this letter, as a young 
man seeking a situation that is liable to improve rapidly, 
but to which at present no salary is attached. You 
have some weeks, perhaps months, before you. You 
will employ them in getting an introduction to the chief 
of the person to whom you are recommended, and you 
will manage so that, when the Congress convenes, if he 
goes you go with him. I shall be there. I do not ask 
you to divulge the smallest secret to me or to commit 
the slightest indiscretion. You will never speak to me 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 123 

of things about to be done. You will simply help me in 
forestalling the information of others, and when the Con- 
gress has adopted articles you will communicate them to 
me ; but I shall not publish them till the day the Congress 
holds its last sitting, in order not to thwart its labours. 
Here is the address at which you will keep me posted; 
and when the Congress is over, provided you have faith- 
fully performed your task, I will hand you the sum you 
deem necessary for making your fortune in the colonies." 

Four days afterward he started. 

Several weeks elapsed, and the constantly deferred Con- 
gress was convened for the 13th of June, 1878. I arrived 
at Berlin on the nth. On the way and at Berlin I had 
a pleasant reception, as I had been assured. Everybody 
was affable, but, as I had foreseen, nobody gave me the 
slightest information. Some days before starting I had 
said to a German diplomatist : 

"At Paris, the fish talk ; atBerlin, the parrots are dumb." 

The remark had been repeated, and people seemed 
resolved on confirming it. 

Lord Odo Russell, though neither a parrot nor a 
fish, received me with the charming manners which 
made him so popular, but did not give me the smallest 
item of information. 

M. Waddington was visibly embarrassed at receiv- 
ing me. It was much the same everywhere — affable 
greetings, pressing invitations, great courtesy, but 
nothing, absolutely nothing, for the impatient tooth of 
the correspondent. 

Prince Bismarck, in receiving the Plenipotentiaries, 
had told them that indiscretions must be avoided at all 
cost, and that the journalists who had invaded Berlin 



124 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

must be prevented from sending their papers authentic 
information. Outside rumours must not hamper the 
march of the Congress; and it was also, I think, a 
question of keeping up the reputation for muteness of 
the German capital. 

On the 13th of June the Congress opened. The jour- 
nalists assembled at Berlin walked like exiled shadows in 
the Wilhelmstrasse, lying in wait for the echoes which 
escaped or might escape from the Congress hall. They 
learned that the Chancellor had made the members 
pledge themselves to absolute silence on the deliberations 
of the Congress. Hence, general consternation ! 

On the night of the 13th I talked with my young friend, 
the only interview I had with him during my whole stay. 
He had succeeded splendidly. He was at Berlin as a kind 
of diplomatic outsider, receiving no salary, no lodging, 
nothing, indeed, but deputed to cooperate in the labours 
imposed by the Congress on one of its members. He felt 
himself, however, closely watched. He brought me some 
summary information of no great importance, but 
which served me as a starting-point, and enabled me, 
indeed, from the very next day, to give my correspond- 
ence a more dignified character and to collect some 
positive facts. 

The real labours of the Congress had not begun. We 
felt that we should not meet again, and, indeed, I never 
met him afterward. It was settled that we should on 
no accotmt employ an intermediary, which would have 
caused us constant uneasiness and would have exposed 
us to voluntary or unvolimtary imprudence. Finally, 
at four in the morning, we adopted the following plan — 
a very poor one, but it seemed preferable to any others : 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 125 

As I had hired a carriage by the month, I was to 
let it stand waiting in the evening at some spot. 
The carriage windows were to be open, and he in passing 
was to throw in his communications, written on very- 
thin paper and forming a tiny memorandum-book. 
Though not very well satisfied with this plan, I could 
hit on no other, nor he either, and we parted with 
this understanding. 

He left the room, but he returned almost immediately, 
saying : 

"Excuse me; I have taken your hat for mine." 

An idea struck me. 

"Shut the door," I said, "and sit down; your method 
of communication is found." 

That method, which succeeded admirably, was of 
childish simplicity. 

I was staying at the Kaiserhof . Every day he came 
there for his lunch and dinner. There was a rack where 
hats were hung. He placed his communications in 
the lining of his hat, and we exchanged hats on leaving 
the table. When I was to dine out, I gave him notice 
overnight, and told him at what hour, before or after 
dinner, I should take tea. Only twice were we forced 
to put off the communication till the following day. 

Once, however, we had a scare. 

One of my English colleagues, on leaving the dining- 
room, made a mistake and took my friend's hat. Without 
looking at each other, we felt, as he wrote me next day, 
that we turned pale. If the colleague in question had 
kept the hat, he might have discovered the third article 
of the treaty, which had been adopted at the previous 
day's sitting, and also a hint of the difficulties that had 



126 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

arisen between Russia and England on the question 
of the boundaries of Bulgaria, and very disagreeable 
consequences for my friend might have been the result. 
Fortunately, on reaching the door the Englishman put on 
the hat, which dropped over on his nose. He laughingly 
took it off and replaced in on its peg. I had risen to take 
the hat from him, but sat down again. I breathed 
freely, and my friend must have done the same. 

This plan was pursued without a hitch until the 
3rd of July. The brief notes which I received in this 
way enabled me to see several members of the Congress 
during the evening, beginning with the most communi- 
cative one and then going to others, piecing things 
together, and thus composing a perfect description of 
the sitting just held. 

As an example of how, in such a case, information 
might be gathered, one evening after dinner I found this 
in the hat : 

"I have not gleaned much. Prince Gortchakolf has 
made a speech which created a little amusement, ending 
with the words: 'Russia is more jealous of gathering 
the laurels of glory than the olive branch of peace ! '" 

With this phrase, I went to a diplomatist who was 
an ardent admirer of the old Chancellor. The conversa- 
tion began with commonplaces, but inevitably turned 
on the labours of the Congress. ^ 

" It seems," I said, " that some members of^the Congress 
ridicule the speech just delivered by Prince Gortchakoff, 
especially the phrase with which he ended, ' Russia, ' etc. " 

The diplomatist drew himself up. 

"It is very wrong to ridicule it," he said, "and I 
hope you are not going to be the echo of these unjust 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 127 

railleries. The Russian Chancellor's speech was very 
acute and clever, despite its apparent pretentiousness. 
He clearly showed that — " and he proceeded to repeat 
some passages of the speech. 

I paid two other visits, and toward midnight could 
telegraph the speech accurately enough for Lord Salisbury 
laughingly to say to me next evening at Count St. 
Vallier's soiree : 

"You forgot a few commas and semicolons, but with 
that exception the speech was given quite accurately. ' ' 

This did not prevent a newspaper from declaring it 
apocryphal, because I had said "Prince Gortchakoff 
rose," whereas Plenipotentiaries always speak seated. 

I only wish to show how I had to go to work to learn 
what had taken place at the Congress. 

I afterward learned that Prince Bismarck was very 
much annoyed at the publication of the speech, and that 
at the next sitting, seated next to a diplomatist from 
whom he fancied I had obtained it, he lifted up the 
table-cloth and sarcastically said : 

" I am looking to see if Blowitz is not underneath." 

The fact is, I had done well to go there. Tongues 
had been looser at Berlin than at Paris, and I was able 
on the morning of the 22nd of June to publish the agree- 
ment effected the previous night between England and 
Russia on the Bulgarian question. 

That question had raised such difficulties that the 
sittings of the Congress had been suspended, and Mr. 
Disraeli, the future Lord Beaconsfield, either from adroit- 
ness or in all sincerity, had engaged a special train for 
Monday, the 24th, to leave Berlin. 

It would have been a disastrous rupture. 



128 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

The whole world was anxiously waiting. 

The 22 nd was a Saturday. 

If I had not been able to publish that morning that an 
agreement had been effected, Saturday's stock exchange 
would have had a terrible fall and many people would 
certainly have been ruined. But the agreement was 
effected at midnight on Friday, and was known in London 
at six o'clock in the morning and in the rest of Europe 
at eight or nine. No stock exchange maneuver was 
practicable, and by this revelation I made numberless 
enemies among those who were speculating on a rupture. 

When the Wolff Agency at Berlin published a London 
telegram quoting the information, many even among 
the members of the Congress — for I knew them — were 
ignorant of the agreement. It was not to be communi- 
cated to them till Saturday's sitting ; the only thing they 
knew was that they were convened for that day. 

I had every reason, therefore, to be satisfied, and 
things went on well till the 4th of July. 

On the 3rd my friend had committed an imprudence. 

When I started for Berlin — or rather, when Prince 
Hohenlohe had encouraged me to go — I had said to him : 

"Does your Highness think the Chancellor will grant 
me an audience? In the first place, I am very anxious 
to know a statesman who is the great historical figure 
of the second half of the nineteenth century. Moreover, 
to go to Berlin without seeing Prince Bismarck is like 
going to Rome without seeing the Pope. It would be a 
mortification for me. " 

Prince Hohenlohe, who is the most perfect gentleman 
I have ever known, and who possesses great diplomatic 
-finesse but does not employ it in his private relations, 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 129 

especially when he meets any one who trusts him, replied 
that he could pledge himself to nothing on that point. 

"All I can promise you," he said, "is that I will do 
my utmost to assist you in obtaining an audience, but I 
do not answer in any way for the success of a step which 
I shall take but once. I could not ask for it a second 
time." 

The I st of July arrived. Prince Bismarck had replied 
in the negative to the request for an audience, which had 
been addressed to him in my name by Prince Hohenlohe. 

"He had received," he said, "hundreds of applications 
for an audience. Everybody was at Berlin, and all the 
leading personages had asked to see him. He could not 
receive me without receiving the others, especially the 
journalists. The German journalists, whom he had 
always refused to receive, would never forgive him if he 
granted me an interview. " 

I abandoned the hope of seeing him and felt very much 
vexed, for by strange ill-luck I had not even caught sight 
of him. 

But on the afternoon of the ist of July, on entering 
the hotel, Prince Hohenlohe' s card was handed to me. 
He had called at the hotel, and had written on the card 
that he wished to see me as soon as possible. He added 
that he would be at the English Embassy reception 
that evening. 

I went to the Embassy, and the Prince arrived at about 
eleven o'clock. My surprise was great indeed when he 
informed me that Prince Bismarck asked me to dine 
with him next day at half -past six, in morning dress. 

On the 2nd, accordingly, at a quarter-past six. 
Prince Hohenlohe, as had been arranged, called for me 



I30 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

at the hotel. I was waiting at the door for him, and we 
went together to the Chancellor's. 

I remained there until eleven at night. 

I will tell you in the next chapter all about that 
memorable interview of five hours' duration. 

It was one of the very rare ones I have had in my life 
which did not disappoint me and which even surpassed 
my expectations. 

All that I will mention here is that on the following day, 
the 3rd of July, every one in Berlin knew that I had 
dined with the Chancellor, and, as was natural, the 
attitude of the diplomatists toward me suddenly changed. 
They made a great deal of me and made overtures to me. 
I had no further need to ask for information, as the infor- 
mation I required came to me. 

This was all the more pleasant as I was not able from 
this time forth to obtain what I needed from the source 
which had served me so well at the commencement. 

My friend, who had until then been exceedingly 
prudent, on learning that I had seen the Chancellor 
in so special a way, assumed airs, and, without 
betraying me in any way, provoked distrust. From 
that time he was kept at a distance, and from the 
4th of July his hat contained nothing but rueful 
confessions of his imprudence and bitter regrets at 
being unable to serve me. I did my utmost to console 
him, and, though I did not see him again, I learned that 
he had left Europe and has since succeeded admirably 
in his enterprises. Still, I lost all chance of having the 
treaty, though information of the Congress reached me 
thenceforth, as I have said, without difficulty. 

On the 5th of July, a week before the Congress closed, 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 131 

I was reading in the hall of the Kaiserhof a private 
letter which had just arrived and which contained the 
following passage : 

"I have watched with delight your campaign in Berlin. 
You would be crowning that campaign if you were the first 
to publish the treaty, and I need not tell you with what 
joy I should see you realise what would be the greatest 
feat of modern journalism." 

At that moment a diplomatist who had always been 
friendly to me walked through the hall of the hotel. I 
must have looked downcast, for he came up to me with 
alacrity and said, "Have you been getting bad news?" 

With the instinctive idea of which I have already 
spoken, and according to which a man's destiny depends 
on the sagacity with which he seizes the indications given 
by fate, instead of replying, I showed him the letter. He 
perused it attentively and then said, turning to me, 
"So you are absolutely bent on forestalling the publi- 
cation of the treaty?" 

"If I were asked to choose between all the orders and 
decorations in the world and the treaty, I should select 
the latter." 

"And how are you going to get it ?" 

"I have just had an assurance that Prince Bismarck 
is highly satisfied with what I wrote on our conversation, 
and he thinks I have rendered a service to peace. I am 
going to ask him to reward me by communicating the 
treaty to me." 

My friend reflected a minute, then exclaimed: "No; 
do not ask him till you have seen me again. Walk out 



132 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

to-morrow between one and two in the Wilhelmstrasse, 
and I will see you." 

Next day, on going into the street, he came up to me 
and hurriedly said, "Come for the treaty the day before 
the end of the Congress and I promise that you shall 
have it." 

I could scarcely restrain my delight. Now that 
I was certain of getting the treaty I had a twofold 
anxiety. 

In the first place, the Congress was to terminate on the 
13th. The Chancellor had positively said so. It was a 
Saturday, I should have the treaty on the 12th, and it 
was necessary at all cost for it to appear on the 13th, for 
the English papers are not published on Sundays, and 
Monday would have been too late. Secondly, it was not 
enough to have the treaty; I must be the only one to 
have it. The German papers were angry with the Chan- 
cellor for not receiving their representatives. I reflected 
that probably, in order to pacify them, he would give 
them the treaty, which would thus appear at Berlin on 
Saturday, and thus I should be beaten. I was in despair. 
How was I to prevent Prince Bismarck from doing 
what he chose ? How could I telegraph the treaty ? It 
was impossible in Germany or Austria; and as for 
Paris, it would be too late, for, getting it only on 
Friday, I could not be in Paris in time for it to be 
published on Saturday in London. 

Finally I came to two decisions: I felt that Brussels 
was the only place from which to telegraph. 

I called on Baron Nothomb, the Belgian Minister at 
Berlin. I told him that there was an idea of organising a 
nightly telegraphic service between Brussels and London. 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 133 

I then asked him to give me a letter for M. Vinchent, the 
Director-General at Brussels, urging him to telegraph 
immediately a long message which I might have to for- 
ward to London, to prove the speed with which Brussels 
and London could communicate. He readily gave me 
the letter. 

This reassured me as to telegraphic transmission. 
There remained the question of preventing anybody else 
from having the treaty. 

After long and elaborate reflection, I hit upon a plan 
which appeared both simple and rational. I asked 
Prince Hohenlohe and Count de St, Vallier to ask Prince 
Bismarck to give me the treaty, and I reasoned thus: 
The Prince says I have rendered service to peace. I 
ask him to reward me by giving me the treaty. If he 
gives it, all will be well; he is not a man to do things by 
halves. As it is to reward me, he will not give it to 
anybody else. As he alone can give it to the German 
press, if I get it I can wait till the end of the Congress, 
send it on Sunday and have it published on Monday 
morning. If he refuses me, I am certain he will refuse 
others. In either case I shall not be forestalled. 

Prince Hohenlohe and Count de St. Vallier were good 
enough to listen to my request. 

On the evening of the nth of July, Prince Hohen- 
lohe informed me that next morning he would communi- 
cate to me the Chancellor's answer. 

At half -past nine I went for the treaty promised me 
as above related. It was given me with the exception 
of the last two articles, which were not to be adopted 
till the penultimate sitting ; and the preamble, entrusted 
to M, Desprez, had not yet been drawn up. / 



134 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

With the treaty in hand I returned to the Kaiserhof, 
to await Prince Hohenlohe's answer. 
It arrived at ten, and was as follows: 

" I much regret being unable to give you a favourable 
reply, but, considering the ill-humour of the German 
press, the Chancellor is afraid of irritating it too much 
by giving you the treaty." 

Thereupon I pretended to be very angry. I ordered 
my luggage to be packed, I asked for my hotel bill, I 
engaged a compartment in the 12 130 train, and announced 
that I was leaving without waiting for the last sitting the 
next day. One of my fellow-correspondents, the most 
talkative of them all, asked the reason of my sudden 
departure. I confided to him that I was enraged, that 
Prince Bismarck, in spite of the service rendered by me, 
as he himself had qualified it, to peace, had just refused 
to give me the treaty. I showed him Prince Hohenlohe's 
letter, and I said that I considered this shameful, and 
that I would not stop an hour longer in a city where 
I was treated in such a fashion. 

My colleague departed to repeat my words, and all my 
brethren came to condole with me. My colleague, Mr. 
Mackenzie Wallace, who had been very devoted to me 
throughout the Congress, was apprised by my secretary 
that I was leaving, and that in the interest of the paper 
I begged him to start with me. I stated that I was 
going to take leave of the Count de St. Vallier. 

I ordered my luggage to be sent to the station where 
we were to meet Mr. Wallace and my secretary, in the 
compartment reserved for me. 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 135 

Count de St. Vallier, then French Ambassador at 
Berlin, and one of the three Plenipotentiaries at the 
Congress, was a typical French nobleman. Amiable, 
elegant, attentive, listening readily, having a natural 
polish which allowed him to be very gracious without 
risk of seeming familiar, he had received me with a 
warmth which touched me. He suffered from indiges- 
tion, had to diet himself strictly, lived on milk, and 
presided with perfect grace over grand banquets at which 
he could touch nothing. His receptions were one of the 
charms of the Congress, and no higher compliment can 
be paid to them than by saying that invitations to attend 
them were most eagerly sought after. 

As he had never ventured to give me information, he 
had, with all the more alacrity, undertaken with Prince 
Hohenlohe to submit to my request the failure of which 
had just been intimated to me. 

I called on him at eleven, having asked him to receive 
me because I was leaving. He advanced with his usual 
grace, saying: 

" I am vexed, believe me, at the failure of our request, 
but it is useless to dwell upon it. I regret that you take 
the thing so very much to heart. Remain two days 
longer. The Congress will be over to-morrow, and, the 
day after, as simple Ambassador, I could give you 
retrospective details which would be interesting." 

I thanked him, but said I adhered to my plan of 
departure. 

"Pleasant journey, then. What can I do for you?" 

"A great deal, Monsieur le Comte. Give me the text 
of the preamble which M. Desprez must have drawn 
up and which must be in your hands." 



136 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

"The preamble, indeed, has just been given to me, 
but what good can that be to you? You do not want 
to pretend to know the treaty by pubHshing the 
preamble?" 

"Give me your word of honour, Monsieur le Comte, 
to keep my secret for forty-eight hours, and I will explain 
what use I am going to make of the preamble." 

" If it is not contrary to my duty, I promise." 

I unfastened my coat and showed him the treaty. 

He turned slightly pale on seeing it. 

" I regret," he said, "that you have told me the secret, 
for if the Chancellor asks whether I knew all about this, 
I shall be forced to confess. In spite of this, though, 
nothing could have amused me more than this way of 
seeing our rebuff retrieved," and he laughed heartily. 
"As to the preamble," he continued, "I cannot let you 
copy it or give you the text, for I have no other. But 
sit down. I will read it slowly and aloud. Now is the 
time to justify your reputation for a wonderful memory." 

And taking up the manuscript, he read it slowly and 
very distinctly. 

I thanked him and took leave. 

I reached the station a few minutes before the train 
started. Mr. Mackenzie Wallace was already seated in 
our compartment. My secretary was waiting on the 
platform. He told me some of my colleagues were 
there to bid me farewell. 

" And to see if I really start," I remarked. 

I assumed a gloomier and sterner air than ever, 
which allowed me to keep silence; for I was afraid of 
forgetting the preamble if my attention were diverted 
by conversation. 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 137 

At length I was able to enter our compartment and to 
salute politely the persons who had come to take leave 
of me. 

The train started. 

It had not been difficult to see that in the crowd 
collected on the platform there were people deputed to 
watch me, and I even perceived that one of them, whom 
I had noticed during my stay in Berlin, was in the adjoin- 
ing compartment. 

Mr. Wallace, who had taken a really fraternal interest 
in my Congress labours and had often devotedly facili- 
tated them, was visibly annoyed at my rebuff, and my 
secretary had an air of consternation which delighted 
me; for the sincerity of his disappointment must have 
been obvious to every one. 

When we had passed the outskirts of Berlin I said 
to my secretary, "Take pen and ink; I am going to 
dictate something." I then dictated the preamble. 

When he had written this, I pulled out the treaty. 
There was a perfect outburst of joy, the sweetest 
recompense which my efforts could obtain; for I 
saw that two honest hearts affectionately and unre- 
servedly sympathised with a success achieved with 
such difficulty. 

" Now we are not going to read the treaty," I said to 
Mr. Wallace. "Here are needles and thread; open your 
coat ; we will sew the treaty and preamble in, so that you 
will not have to trouble about its safety, and we will 
append Baron Nothomb's letter to M. Vinchent." 

When this was done, I said to Mr. Wallace: "We are 
evidently being watched, myself more particularly. At 
the first large station you will leave this compartment 



138 MEMOIRS OP M. DE BLOWITZ 

and go into one some way off on the left, for on the right 
I believe there is some one watching us. I shall pretend 
not to know you; and you must do the same about me. 
At Cologne you will take the Brussels train, and you will 
arrive at five in the morning. You will go straight to 
the telegraph office. If, as I expect, they refuse to 
transmit the treaty without higher orders, you must 
wake up M. Vinchent, present Baron Nothomb's letter, 
and ask him for the order of transmission." 

Things happened just as I had foreseen. Mackenzie 
Wallace went into another compartment, and we did 
not approach each other ; but at the stations where we 
alighted I laughed heartily, for, though the treaty was 
firmly sewed to the lining of his coat, I saw him from 
time to time put his hand to his heart, as if to assure 
himself of its safety. 

When, on reaching Brussels, he offered the telegrams 
for the clerk to count the words, the latter explained : 

"Why, it is the treaty of Berlin; I cannot undertake 
to send it." 

Wallace thereupon asked to see M. Vinchent. He 
was in bed. Wallace showed Baron Nothomb's letter 
and insisted on seeing him. The letter was sent to the 
Director's house, he was aroused, and a quarter of an 
hour later he wrote at the foot of the Baron's letter the 
order of transmission. 

At the very hour on the 13th of July when the treaty 
of 1878 was signed at Berlin, a London telegram an- 
nounced that the Times had published the preamble and 
sixty-four articles, with an English translation appended. 

"How could it have obtained the preamble yesterday 
morning seeing that it was not drawn up?" asked Prince 



THE BERLIN CONGRESS 139 

Bismarck of Count de St. Vallier. "Was it not you, 
Count, who gave it ?" 

M. de St. Vallier had now no reason for keeping the 
secret any longer, and he was bound to reply without 
hesitation. He therefore frankly related what had 
happened. 

"And what did he say when you told him?" I asked 
M. de St. Vallier. 

"Excuse me," replied the Count, smiling, "but he did 
not tell me to repeat it to you." 

At Berlin the news of the publication of the treaty 
caused a great sensation. Many persons immediately 
set to work to discover from whom I obtained the treaty. 
I will relate in another part of my memoirs how, five 
years afterward, the Chancellor tried to make me reveal 
the secret. Meanwhile, the account I have just given is 
an authentic narrative of how the treaty fell into my 
hands. Nothing more will ever be known, and if I have 
written this much, it is in order that the public may 
know by what efforts, sacrifices and difficulties, and at 
the cost of what anxiety, one sometimes succeeds in 
satisfying its thirst for knowing and forestalling events. 



CHAPTER VII 

What Bismarck Told Me 

I CANNOT truthfully say that I was quite calm and 
composed on the evening of July 2, 1878, when at half- 
past six, accompanied by Prince von Hohenlohe, I 
mounted the pink-and-white flagged staircase leading to 
the private apartment occupied by Prince Bismarck 
in Wilhelmstrasse. 

For a month past, ever since the European diplo- 
matists had assembled round that table at the Congress 
of Berlin, I had been wishing for and trying to obtain 
an interview with the extraordinary man before whose 
authority every one bowed and who was master of the 
events of the day. And now, at the last moment, I felt 
a sort of pang as I wondered whether I was going to be 
cruelly disappointed and whether all my illusions were 
about to be destroyed at one blow. 

The door of the drawing-room, into which Prince von 
Hohenlohe and I had been shown, opened and the 
Chancellor appeared. 

He was much taller than I had imagined. I had 
never seen him except at Madame Tussaud's in London, 
where there is only a small figure of him, and when I 
saw this giant in uniform enter the room I was quite 
taken aback. There was something still more extra- 
ordinary about his head. His ears were large, wide 
open to the hundreds of rumours which came to them 

140 



WHAT BISMARCK TOLD ME 141 

from the four comers of the universe. His chin made a 
strong foundation for the big jaws, which would certainly 
never loose anything they held until it was in shreds, 
whilst his eyes, well set between a projecting eyelid and a 
well-exposed eyebrow, had a far-away look in them, as 
though they were gazing out beyond the visible horizon. 

The Princess came into the room with the Chancellor. 
She sat down on a sofa, whilst he sank into an enormous 
armchair near me. 

I had asked Prince von Hohenlohe whether I ought to 
speak in French or in German, and he had replied that I 
must wait for the Prince's first words. These first words 
were in German. 

On hearing my reply, the Princess asked inquisitively: 

"Do you speak English as well as you do German ?" 

The Prince interrupted her with a laugh and turned 
to me. 

*T must tell you," he said, "that my wife has a theory 
that only thin people can talk English well. According 
to this, neither you nor I will make our mark in that 
language." 

A few moments later we were seated at table in the 
dining-room. The Prince appeared to be in an excellent 
humour that evening. 

"I saw you yesterday," he said to me, "on foot, in Unter 
den Linden. You were going into a bazaar. What in 
the world can a man who comes from Paris want to buy 
in our bazaars?" 

"Your Excellency would be very much more surprised 
to hear what I was in search of," I replied. 

"What was it?" 

"A clock ! I must ask you to excuse my mentioning 



142 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

it, but I cannot imagine what has become of all those 
that were brought from France, for there is not a single 
one in my hotel !" 

The Chancellor laughed heartily at this joke, which 
was, perhaps, rather risque, and then he immediately 
began to discuss a more serious subject. He asked me 
what were the latest impressions of the public on the 
work of the Congress. 

"The Rumanians are not very well pleased, "I replied. 
"They reckoned on receiving money, which they appear to 
require badly." 

" Oh, well ! " said the Prince, with a certain amount of 
vivacity, "they are not the only ones who need it; every 
one is in the same condition, and every one is economising. 
France is the only country which does not hesitate to 
spend millions on its slightest caprices !" 

" Yes, " I answered ; " and yet it is a curious phenomenon, 
when one takes into consideration the temperament of 
the French, to see that these people, who appear to be so 
thoughtless and so turbulent, should be the most econom- 
ical people in the world, and that, in their country, saving 
is organised in such a way that it has become a national 
theory." 

"Oh," interrupted Prince Bismarck, turning toward 
me, "that is only surprising to those who are in the 
habit of judging that country by Paris ! But there is 
France and France, the French of Paris and the French 
of the provinces. The former are immensely vain and 
amusing, agreeable, wasteful, always ready to knock down 
the lamp-posts, have revolutions, and declare war. They 
have nothing to do with economy. The whole world 
takes money to them and they squander it. But at her 



WHAT BISMARCK TOLD ME 143 

side is the other France, the real France, that of the 
provinces and of the rural districts — the French who 
work and labour, who are steady and who economise, 
and who pay for all the giddy actions, all the follies of 
the other. When the former bring about a revolution, 
it is the latter who suffer; when the former declare war, 
it is the latter who fight. And yet the French of the 
provinces love their native soil, and their greatest sacrifice 
is to tear themselves away from it in order to make 
their military service. 

" When I was in France, I was very much interested in 
the "common soldiers, and I often chatted with them. 
They all of them had one great desire, and that was to 
finish their military service and return to their fields. 

" If one only listened to the French peasant, there would 
never be any war; and yet, when he does fight, he fights 
well. When he is beaten he is very much cast down, 
and when he is victorious he is delighted — there can be 
no doubt about it; but, conqueror or conquered, the 
one thing he sees clearly is that victory or defeat will 
bring the battle to a close and he will then be able to 
return home. " 

The conversation then reverted to the Congress. The 
Prince remarked rather severely: 

" The Peace of San Stefano was one of the most thought- 
less actions of modern history. Ignatieff made a blunder 
which no true statesman would ever have committed. 
He took everything that he could get. When an enemy 
is vanquished, and one has one's foot on his neck, he 
can be made to give whatever one wants, but one must 
think of the consequences of the victory as well as the 
consequences of the defeat. We should not be where we 



144 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

now are if, in 1866, I had acted like Ignatieff, if I had 
taken territory from Austria. At that time every one 
was against me. I had said when we started: 'If we 
should be victorious I shall not annex any Austrian 
territory, for we must not remain enemies forever. In 
ten or twelve years' time we must be able to come to an 
understanding with her.' When we were victorious, 
every one wanted me to take territory from her. I 
held my own, though, and since then I have often had 
cause to congratulate myself that I did so. " 

At these words I could not help looking the Prince in 
the face, and he at once read in my eyes the question that 
was on my lips, for without flinching he said: 

"I know what you mean: you are thinking about the 
last war. But in 1871 I acted in the same way. At 
that time France was in our hands. Paris was con- 
quered, the Commune was brewing, everything was 
disorganised; and if I had acted like Ignatieff I should 
have demanded Picardy and Champagne. Now this 
never occurred to any one; and when I was urged to 
take Belfort and Metz I refused, saying, 'No, Belfort is 
in the hands of the French; it must remain theirs.' And 
even with regard to Metz, on seeing the despair of poor 
M. Thiers, I hesitated. But, as you know, at the con- 
clusion of a campaign such as that was, one has to take 
into consideration the military element, and I was obliged 
to listen to Moltke, who kept repeating to me at every 
hour of the day, 'Metz in our hands, or in the hands 
of the French, means a difference of 100,000 men, more 
or less, in the army.' I could not impose upon my 
country the burden of putting 100,000 more men into 
active service at a given moment. " 



WHAT BISMARCK TOLD ME 145 

Then, as all this recalled M. Thiers to his mind, the 
Chancellor continued: 

"Ah, the French were not just to poor Thiers ! And 
yet he was a true patriot, and the most striking figure 
I have hitherto come across in contemporary France. 
I felt a sort of pity for the poor old man who had travelled 
through Europe in the midst of a hard winter to beg for 
help, which it was impossible to obtain, and who kept 
crossing and recrossing our lines around Paris, fired on 
by our posts in spite of the strict orders they had 
received." 

The Chancellor stroked his forehead as though trying 
to recall something, and then continued: 

" I remember, " he said, " an incident that I shall never 
forget. We were discussing a question about which we 
could not come to an understanding. M. Thiers held his 
own in the most spirited manner possible. M. Jules 
Favre was pathetic, gesticulating in the most tragic way ; 
but nevertheless no progress was made with our business. 
All at once I began to talk German. M. Thiers looked 
at me in amazement. 

" 'You know we do not understand German,' he said. 

"'Certainly,' I replied in French. 'When I am dis- 
cussing matters with people with whom I believe I 
can finally come to an understanding, I speak their 
language, but when I see that it is useless to argue with 
them I talk my own language. You had better send for 
an interpreter.' 

" To tell the truth, I was in a hurry to conclude matters. 
For the last week I had been in boiling oil. Every night 
I expected to be roused by a despatch containing some 
request from England, Russia, Austria or Italy, in 



146 MEMOIRS OF M, de BLOWITZ 

favour of France. I know, of course, that I should 
have ignored it, but it would, all the same, have 
been an indirect intervention in the quarrel between 
France and Germany. I wanted to avoid this at all 
costs; that is why, in spite of my admiration for the 
patriotic persistence of M. Thiers, I had been so brusk 
in replying in German. The effect of these tactics was 
very odd. M. Jules Favre threw up his long arms as 
though appealing to Heaven, and then, with his hair 
standing on end and his face hidden in his hands, he 
rushed like a huge bat to a comer of the room, turning 
his face to the wall as though he did not wish to see the 
humiliation inflicted upon the representatives of France. 
M. Thiers looked over his spectacles with a scandalised 
expression and then trotted off quickly, in a petulant 
way, to a table at the other end of the room, and I heard 
his pen scratching away nervously on the paper. After 
some time he walked toward me. His small eyes were 
flashing behind his spectacles, his mouth was contracted 
with anger, and in an abrupt manner he held out the 
paper to me, saying dryly and in a somewhat hard voice : 

" ' Is that what you want ?' 

"I looked at what he had written. It was admirably 
drawn up, and it was very nearly what I had stipulated. 
I then spoke French again, and the negotiations were 
concluded in that language. Thiers, you know, always 
seemed to me like a big child, but when he was driven 
to extremities one could preceive how courageous and 
intelligent he was. He was the very deuce ! " 

All this was told by Bismarck in the simplest and most 
natural way, without any posing or seeking for effect. 
He spoke just as he thought, with a certain familiarity 



WHAT BISMARCK TOLD ME 147 

and perhaps even a certain triviality of language. 
He was smoking an enormous pipe and sending 
out thick puifs, and between two stories he would 
gaze out silently beyond the gardens of Wilhelm- 
strasse at the setting sun. The Congress and its 
work was what interested and preoccupied him the 
most. He referred to it continually and brought every 
other subject to bear on it. It seemed as though he had 
endless things to say about it. 

"At the Congress," he told me, "there is simply 
nothing left to desire. M. Waddington, who represents 
France, is absolutely devoted to his country. He is a 
modest, straightforward man, who likes work and wishes 
to understand things thoroughly. I have never seen 
a more laborious Minister of Foreign Affairs. Every one 
likes him, and he must have rendered great services to 
his Government. 

"Now one may not be a Republican, but one must 
admit that there is nothing possible for France at the 
present day but a republic. If the various Pretenders 
could come to some agreement I should not perhaps 
speak in the same way. But if one of them should get 
into power, he would have all the rest of France against 
him; that would mean civil war immediately, and civil 
war in France is like having the plague at one's door. 

" I admire Shuvaloff at the Congress. He has to hold 
his own against every one. They are all after him ; he 
is like a stag under pursuit that shows its horns when 
too hard pressed. Neither Gortchakoff nor Von Oubril 
are of any great assistance to him ; yet he is most polite, 
ever a gentleman, never making any mistakes, and 
always commencing with a polite formula, such as 



148 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

* Prince, may I be allowed to say a word in reply, etc.* 
He is certainly a typical diplomatist. Shuvaloff and 
Beaconsfield are the two principal figures of this Congress, 
and I am perfectly charmed to have the opportimity 
of observing them. 

" Beaconsfield has the most extraordinary presence of 
miad. He is accommodating and energetic, and never 
allows himself to be disturbed by anything. He defends 
his cause admirably, and last Friday, when the nego- 
tiations were broken off, he was ready to lead his country 
courageously to war. It was then that I intervened. 
He and Shuvaloff have both done their duty, and they 
have both saved their country from war. Personally, 
my only merit is that of having brought them together 
at a moment when it was no longer possible for them to 
approach each other again. 

"Two years ago, when I saw Beaconsfield for the first 
time, I said to him: 'Why are you opposed to Russia? 
You might come to an understanding with her. It 
would be to the interest of both countries. Why do you 
not take Egypt ? France would not bear you any ill-will 
on that account for very long. Besides, you could give 
her a compensation — Tunis or Syria, for instance — and 
then Europe would at last be free from this question of 
Turkey, which is constantly bringing her within an ace 
of a fresh war.' Beaconsfield did not reply, but I saw 
that my words had not fallen on a deaf ear." 

The Prince stopped and there was a long silence. It 
was getting late, and a neighbouring clock struck eleven 
slowly and deliberately. Prince von Hohenlohe rose, 
as a signal for our departure, and I did likewise. Prince 
Bismarck laid his pipe down on a small table specially 




M. DE BLOWITZ AS OFTEN SEEN IN THE STREETS OF PARIS, WITH HIS 

NIECE 
[From a photograph made during the last year of his life] 



\ 



WHAT BISMARCK TOLD ME 149 

designed for that purpose and, turning to me, held out 
his large hand. 

"Adieu !" he said, in a rough and at the same time 
melancholy way, "You generally reside in Paris, so jl 
do not think we shall see each other again for some time. 
But I am very glad to have made your acquaintance, and 
I think you will be on my side as long as you are convinced 
that I wish for peace." 

Just as I was going out of the room the Chancellor asked 
me if I would not have another cigar. I accepted the 
cigar, and was once more moving toward the door, when 
he stopped me and insisted on lighting it for me himself ; 
and he held the match for about a minute. My cigar was 
lighted at last, and I went away. The interview — an 
interview which had lasted five hours — was at an end. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Gambetta and Bismarck. 

During the historical conversation the principal points 
of which I have faithfully retraced in the preceding 
chapter, Bismarck touched upon many subjects, just as 
they occurred to him. He spoke of diplomacy and of 
war, of the Congress and of Europe, of French states- 
men and even of French literature, and one name was fre- 
quently mentioned by the Chancellor — that of Gambetta. 

The celebrated tribune was then at the very height of 
his glory. His big voice frequently crossed the frontiers, 
and its echo could be heard in foreign countries. He 
possessed that formidable and much-envied power of 
appearing to incarnate in himself a whole country, a 
whole democracy. In the French Republic he played 
the part of Dictator. 

"Gambetta," said Prince Bismarck to me after a 
pause, "is a man I should like to see before I die. In 
spite of all that one hears to the contrary, he is a really 
remarkable character. He soars above his compatriots. 
I'm told that he is fascinating, and yet fascinating men 
are never supposed to be good statesmen." 

"M. Thiers told me once," I remarked, laughing, "that 
Your Highness was fascinating, and yet you have the 
reputation of being a great statesman ! " 

"I have not that reputation — in Germany," replied 
the Chancellor, and then, going back to his first idea, 
he said: 

150 



GAMBETTA AND BISMARCK 151 

"Yes, I certainly should not like to die until I have seen 
Gambetta." 

His insistence on this point struck me. Prince von 
Hohenlohe, who was then Ambassador at Paris, and Baron 
von Holstein, attache to the Minister of Foreign Affairs 
at Berlin and the Chancellor's confidant, accompanied me 
on my way back to the Kaiserhof . As we passed in front 
of the gardens of the Radziwill Palace, I said to them: 

"I cannot think it was only by chance that Prince 
Bismarck twice mentioned his wish to see Gambetta. He 
knows that I am acquainted with him and that I may 
see him on my return to Paris. He did not tell me not 
to repeat what he said, and he praised Gambetta in such 
a way that it appeared as if he were entrusting me with 
a graceful message. I do not know the Prince as well as 
you do, but it seems to me that we ought to arrange an 
interview. I might pave the way, and you, Prince, might 
take part in the negotiations." 

Prince von Hohenlohe, according to his custom when 
an idea interested him, looked down on the ground and 
then, after a moment's silence, smiled at me approvingly. 

As to Baron von Holstein, he merely remarked : 

"Let me have forty-eight hours for reflection, and then 
I will give you an answer with a thorough knowledge of 
the matter." 

Whenever he had any important decision to make, 
Baron von Holstein always asked for forty-eight hours' 
reflection. He employed them in discovering the opinion 
and desires of his master, so that his reply was in reality 
Bismarck's. Two days later, as if by accident, he passed 
by the Kaiserhof. I was at the door talking, and we 
strolled along together. 



15^ MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

"Well," I said, laughing, "are you in a position to answer 
me yet?" 

"Yes," he replied. 

He admitted that the Chancellor had persisted in 
talking about Gambetta in order to see whether I would 
undertake to open negotiations for bringing about an 
interview between the two statesmen. He even added 
that the interview might easily take place at Kissingen, 
where the Chancellor was prolonging his sojourn. 

' ' You will understand, ' ' he continued, in a solemn tone, 
"that this interview is a serious matter, and that all the 
possible consequences must be well weighed before any 
arrangements are concluded. The Chancellor has the 
firm conviction, and that conviction has grown stronger 
since he has spoken with you, that M. Gambetta is 
destined before long to become a great power in France, 
and that that power will be of a most decisive character. 
The Chancellor desires peace, and he would like to meet 
the man on whom may depend in the near future the 
rupture or the maintenance of peace. He hopes by this 
interview to acquire some knowledge of the private ideas 
of M. Gambetta, no matter how skilfully the latter may 
endeavour to conceal them. That, of course, is neither 
your business nor mine. Everything that takes place 
between these two men must have a most conciliatory 
character; the interview must not appear like a passage 
of arms. The past must be the past. These men have 
fought against each other, each one for his own country. 
All that has happened belongs now to the past — the 
present undertaking is in view of the future. If this 
interview should take place, everything must be averted 
which might alter the character of it or interfere with the 



GAMBETTA AND BISMARCK 153 

object in view. No overture must be made which might 
lead to a refusal on the part of one of these personages 
or to a rebuff for the other. There must be no question, 
as you will readily understand, of any compromise, of 
any retrocession, of any modification of existing treaties. 
In brief, there must be no question of Alsace-Lorraine. 

"It must be clearly understood that neither Prince 
Bismarck, nor the Emperor, nor any other person, could 
allow the conversation to turn upon the subject. The 
German nation would not accept any discussion, even an 
academic one, of accomplished facts which caused 
German blood to be shed and which strewed France with 
the corpses of German soldiers. An interview between 
these two men, animated by pacific intentions and 
impressed by the duties which are incumbent on them, 
may bring about a salutary result, if they do not seek for 
the personal satisfaction of triumphing over each other. " 

The conversation continued for some little time and 
then we separated. 

On my return to Paris, toward the month of August, 
1878, I wrote to M. Gambetta, asking him for an inter- 
view, and this interview, the only one he ever granted 
to a journalist, took place forty-eight hours later. M. 
Gambetta received me in the editor's office of his news- 
paper, La Republique Frangaise, a large room which 
looked onto a flight of stone steps opposite the en- 
trance to the Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin. He greeted 
me very cordially and was extremely agreeable, for he 
was anxious to find out exactly what had taken place 
in Berlin. 

I proved to him easily enough how prejudicial was the 



154 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

policy of his paper, which, for causes it would take too 
long to enumerate here, had shown itself violently hostile 
to the French Plenipotentiaries who were representing 
their country at a great international congress — ^the first 
held since the terrible Franco-Prussian War. I was 
fortunate enough to see him come round to my opinion. 

When I had finished this part of my conversation, I 
introduced the second part — the interview with the 
Chancellor. 

M. Gambetta, I must confess, was very pleased. He 
also had a certain fascination about him which one would 
never imagine on seeing him in ordinary, everyday life, 
and he now proved to be quite irresistible. He appeared 
to be delighted at the prospect of an interview, and 
declared that the results he anticipated from it would 
be beneficial and fruitful to all parties. 

I listened to him with infinite pleasure. His words 
were brimming over with the most ardent patriotism, 
which inspired me with a veritable admiration for him, 
and he did not conceal the satisfaction he felt at the 
idea of being able at last to meet the man on whom 
depended, perhaps, the future peace of the whole of 
Europe. Finally, turning to me, he asked : 

" But how, in the event of this interview, do you sup- 
pose I should be able to approach the great question 
which preoccupies us and about which we are at 
variance?" 

I had foreseen this dread point, and I answered : 

"This first interview, I think, is only to have a pre- 
liminary character. As far as I imderstand, there mtist 
be nothing said on this initial occasion about the lost 
provinces. All that must be reserved for later interviews, 



GAMBETTA AND BISMARCK 155 

in order that a denial may be given to those who declare 
— ^with a view to stirring up public opinion — that the 
question of Alsace-Lorraine has been discussed." 

"That," he said promptly, "is absolutely impossible. 
I cannot approach the German Chancellor without speak- 
ing to him of Alsace-Lorraine. If I were to be silent on 
that subject it would spoil our whole conversation, and 
he would feel, too plainly, that he had a man before him 
who did not say what he thought and who did not think 
what he said !" 

" Well, " I replied, " instead of talking to him of Alsace- 
Lorraine, you might speak of Alsace and of Lorraine, 
and in that way lessen the problem by dividing it." 

"Oh," said M. Gambetta, "I don't fancy that would 
alter much ! " 

He thought the matter over for a minute in silence, 
and then, like a man who had made up his mind, he rose 
and held out his hand to me : 

"I should consider it my duty and an honour," he 
said, somewhat ceremoniously, "to be able to ap- 
proach the Chancellor and to endeavour with him to 
solve the problem of European peace and happiness. 
But in order to attain that end, when we approach 
each other we must have in view the tranquillity of 
humanity, and not personal success; that is why I 
must be able to speak to him not of Alsace and of 
Lorraine, but of Alsace-Lorraine!" 

The following day I called on Prince von Hohenlohe, 
to whom I repeated the conversation and resigned my 
offices as negotiator. 

There was never again any question of an interview 
between Prince Bismarck and M. Gambetta. 



CHAPTER IX 

Alva 

General de Galliffet once announced that for the 
last forty years he had been taking daily notes, and he 
thereupon began the publication in two Parisian papers 
of fragments of these notes. These fragments, by an 
odd coincidence, contained, every now and then, blunders 
in dates which did not escape the attention of his readers. 

I desire to say to readers of these memoirs that I have 
never in my life taken many notes as to the events in 
which I have been mixed up, and that consequently 
nothing would be more natural than that I should from 
time to time make certain errors of dates like General de 
Galliffet. But I attach no importance to a possibility 
of this sort, my chief concern being with the accuracy of 
the facts which I relate. 

I nevertheless remember as if it were yesterday that 
on September 5, 1878, under the arcades of the Rue de 
Rivoli, I met my dear old friend. Hector Pessard, coming 
out of one of the big hotels that abound in that street. 
M. Hector Pessard was then the manager and editor-in- 
chief of the National. When he took the paper over, it 
was on the point of disappearing altogether, but he 
rapidly made it one of the most important organs of the 
moment in Paris. The National belonged in truth to 
that class of Parisian newspapers which bud, bloom and 
die. During my long experience as a journalist, which 

156 



ALVA 157 

has lasted nearly one-third of a century, I have seen 
born, grow up and perish so many newspapers that as I 
look back upon them my memory resembles those old 
Norman churches surrounded by a cemetery into which 
one enters without knowing exactly whether the cere- 
mony one goes to witness is to be a baptism, a marriage 
or a funeral. 

" Ah ! " said M. Hector Passard to me, " I am delighted 
to meet you, for my intention was to go and see you. 
You are only just back from the Berlin Congress ; you are 
sailing on the top of the wave; your name is constantly 
under the public eye; it is well known that the Prime 
Minister, M. Dufaure, has had a long conversation with 
you on what took place at the Berlin Congress. You 
are what is called ' the man of the day, ' and you will not 
be surprised, therefore, if I ask you to come with me 
and call on Madame Marsa Chamil, who lives in this 
hotel. I have promised her that you shall go to see her." 

" But in the first place," I replied, " I am, as you say, 
for the time being, very much occupied; and secondly, 
who is Madame Marsa Chamil, whose name I now hear 
for the first time ?" 

" Mon Dieiil" exclaimed Hector Pessard, "I will be 
frank. I don't know much more about her than you. 
It is in a certain measure in order to find out that we 
all, Henri de Pene and his wife, Francis Magnard, Henri 
Fouquier and the others, would like you to see her, for 
we suppose that with your knowledge of all that 
is going on behind the scenes in European society you 
will assist us in deciphering the very interesting enigma 
which she appears to be. We generally call her the 
Duchess, and she accepts the name with a smile, because 



158 MEMOIE.S OF M. de BLOWITZ 

everything belonging to her in this hotel — the table 
linen, the china, the glass and the silver, and all the rare 
and curious bibelots — are marked with a ducal crown, 
and attest great wealth and elegance." 

"And what sort of a woman is this Duchess? " 

" She is under forty, charming, a tall, graceful brunette, 
although perhaps not a descendant of any very ancient 
family, speaks several languages correctly, knows the 
upper circles in most continental countries, spends a 
great deal of money, has a very smart team and respectful, 
well-trained servants; entertains freely and with taste 
and refinement, pays her bills regularly and promptly, 
has the most fashionable dressmakers, goes out little, 
talks of men and things with much knowledge and insight, 
but rarely of herself, and never speaks ill of others. 
Finally, she has with her a young lady named Alva, of 
whom one gets only rare and furtive glimpses, a girl of 
eighteen, absolutely well-bred, whom the Duchess calls 
'my child,' a fact which authorises one to suppose that 
she is her daughter." 

"Really," I replied, "you arouse my curiosity keenly, 
but I am bound to tell you that I am curious only by 
profession, caring little to know what I cannot repeat 
publicly. But what you have just said renders it impos- 
sible for me to refuse to make the visit you propose, so, 
if you will allow me, as soon as I have a little more 
liberty I will send you word and we will go together to 
call upon the Duchess. " 

Were I to relate all the traps which hatred or jealousy 
or mere spite have laid for me, for more than thirty years, 
all the columns of a newspaper would not suffice. I will 
mention, therefore, only a single one in order to give 



ALVA 159 

readers an idea of the methods employed to catch 
me off my guard and to involve me in irremedi- 
able complications. 

When the second Dreyfus trial broke out, I beheld one 
day entering my home a man still young, who appeared 
to be quite out of breath, and whose expression was 
that of a person in trouble. He related that he was a 
married man and a father, that he held a confidential 
position at the War Office, that he had just met with 
heavy losses at the gaming table, and that, in exchange 
for a sum that would help him to save his reputation, he 
would supply me with military documents of the highest 
importance. I discovered later on that this man had 
been sent to me by powerful enemies, solely in order to 
try to implicate me in that wretched affair. 

I say this in order to explain the precautions which I 
took in the matter that I am now narrating, and why, a 
few days after my meeting with M. Hector Pessard, I 
called on the manager of the hotel where the Duchess was 
staying — a man who was under some obligations to me 
and who always showed much deference toward me — 
with a view of obtaining more detailed information about 
the Duchess than M. Hector Pessard had imparted to me. 

The manager of the hotel placed himself immediately 
at my service. 

"The Duchess," said he, "has been residing here for 
the past eleven months. There is evidently a little 
mystery about her, but I should not be telling the truth 
if I did not add that, apart from this instinctive and 
justifiable feeling that one has, there is nothing to be said 
against her, and her entire bearing and attitude give rise 
to no criticism. Five or six days before her arrival one 



i6o MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

of the leading employees of a well-known bank came to 
choose the suite of rooms she now occupies. He selected 
an apartment on the third floor, so that the visitors should 
not be troubled by the noise of the street. Their suite 
looks out on the Tuileries gardens and is composed of a 
drawing-room, dining-room, two bedrooms for herself 
and her daughter, a 'study,' and three small rooms for 
her butler and her two lady's maids, who live on the same 
floor. On the first of the month the butler, who appears 
to be a highly respectable old servant, takes a cheque to 
the bank I have mentioned, and with the utmost regularity 
the Duchess, on his return, settles her bills here. She 
has never kept us waiting a single day. Her valet, who 
acts as a general man-servant, lives at the stables outside 
the hotel. The Duchess rarely goes out, receives only 
highly honourable visitors — ^more men than women, that 
is true — but men who for the most part are well known 
here as well as elsewhere. She shops a great deal, almost 
always in the same establishments. Her dressmakers 
are well known and she habitually pays immediately for 
all that is brought to her; and she is regarded, owing 
to her long stay here and the regularity of her orders 
and payments, as a valuable patron. She has more than 
once asked for her bills before they were presented. I 
calculate, without having been guilty of any misplaced 
curiosity, that this lady must have more than 200,000 
francs a year to spend, and all I hope is that she will 
remain here as long as possible, for, I repeat, neither the 
prosperity nor respectability of the hotel has to regret 
her presence. " 

The next day I wrote to M. Pessard to tell him that 
I was at his disposal for any date he would like to fix, 



ALVA i6i 

and on September 14, at four in the afternoon, I went 
with my friend to call on IMadame IMarsa Chamil, who 
had invited us to tea. 

The portrait of the Duchess had been well portrayed 
to me by M. Pessard. As I entered she rose from the arm- 
chair in which she was sitting, and greeted me very ami- 
ably without offering me her hand, afterward begging 
me to take a chair. She began in the most natural way 
in the world to talk of the events of the day, of the crisis 
of May 16, 1877, the solution of which she had witnessed 
almost immediately on her arrival in Paris, and of the 
fall of M. Jules Simon, for whom she had a letter of intro- 
duction which she had refrained from presenting on learn- 
ing that since his defeat he had no inclination to receive 
strangers. She then talked of the statesmen whom I 
had seen at the Berlin Congress; of Count Andrassy, 
who was so characteristically the type of the Magyar 
race, nervous, breezy and hale, as if his ruddiness had 
been caught under the sun of his native forests ; of Count 
von Haymerle, so refined and elegant, subtle and active, 
but for whom people predicted a brief career because his 
incessant activity was like a tongue of fire that devoured 
his constitution; of Kara Theodori, the melancholy 
representative of a decadent power, who had haunted 
the diplomatic salons of Berlin like a silent and furtive 
shade, remaining timidly in the background, for he was 
somewhat bashful and the interests he upheld were most 
confused and precarious. She then spoke to me of Prince 
Bismarck, whom she had certainly met, for, quite natu- 
rally, in repeating a conversation which she had had, 
she imitated in a respectful but amusing way his habit of 
stopping suddenly and without embarrassment in the 



i62 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

midst of a phrase and of remaining quite silent until he 
had found the exact word which he wanted. She spoke 
tome, finally, but with great discretion, without flattery 
and without exaggeration, of the role that I had played 
in Berlin and of certain episodes of my sojourn there, 
which would almost have led me to believe that she 
had seen me in Berlin, if I had not been aware that she 
had not absented herself from Paris for a whole year. 

I was, during this visit, struck by the intellectual 
superiority of this woman who, during our conversation, 
had made use of several languages, which she seemed to 
know perfectly well and which she spoke with an accent 
that belonged to none of them, without my being able 
exactly to discover to what nationality it was due. I 
saw perfectly well that this first visit would not be the 
last, for from the outset I felt for the Duchess, whom 
I had just seen for the first time, a really sympathetic 
curiosity ; and I made a firm resolve, without any vulgar 
or hidden motive, to try to penetrate into her intimacy 
and to get at the meaning of the very real mystery which, 
so to speak, floated in the ambient air surroimding her. 

There had been, on this occasion, besides M. Pessard 
and myself, three or four persons with whom she knew 
that I was acquainted, and to whom, therefore, she did 
not feel obliged to introduce me ; but, among two or three 
others, she introduced to me a young man, of easy and 
elegant manners and of real distinction, as the Prince 
Karageorgewitch, and as the question of the future Prince 
of Bulgaria was then being discussed, she added a few 
words which appeared to indicate that this young man 
was regarded by some persons as among the candidates 
for that dignity. In brief, I took leave of the Duchess 



ALVA 163 

with the sensation that my visit had been one of the most 
interesting which I had made for some time past. From 
that day, I went to see her almost regularly for more or 
less long calls two or three times a week. I was more 
and more impressed by her superior intelligence, her 
good breeding, and by the accuracy of her opinions and 
reflections ; and while noting that, in spite of my constant 
attention, I had not succeeded in piercing the somewhat 
impenetrable veil enveloping her, I remained convinced 
that I was dealing neither with an adventuress nor with a 
woman capable of a dishonest act ; and my sympathy for 
her grew apace without my ignorance in regard to her 
being a whit diminished. 

One evening, in December, it was a little late when I 
made my call, and I found her alone. She said to me : 

"Let me introduce you to my dear child, Alva, whom 
you do not yet know, and, so that you may become better 
acquainted with her, you will, if possible, share our 
dinner, for we are dining alone to-night." 

At my movement of assent she rang and told Hugot, 
the butler, to ask mademoiselle to come to her in the 
drawing-room. The introduction was brief, for Alva 
seemed to have been apprised fairly accurately as to the 
person now introduced to her, and, contrary to the custom 
of the Duchess, she immediately extended her hand in a 
cordial and almost familiar way. i\.lva was a great 
beauty, elegantly slender, of harmonious proportions, 
with hands and feet of perfect distinction, and she was 
dressed with refined and irreproachable simplicity. She 
had a delicate little head, a rather brilliant complexion, 
a superb forehead, hair of the purest and most wavy gold, 
and eyes of that greenish blue which characterises the 



i64 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

women of the North, and which, under eyebrows finely 
arched and beneath long brown lashes, seemed read- 
ily to change their colour and, according to the impres- 
sions they reflected, became more azure-hued and 
more profound. 

Aiva bade me welcome, and as it was late I asked to be 
allowed to return home in order to dress. At dinner, 
the girl expressed herself in perfectly pure French without 
the slightest accent. She, too, knew English, German,. 
Spanish and a little Russian. She had the experience 
of her age, for she was not yet eighteen, but she showed 
an exact and penetrating intelligence and a judgment 
both firm and indulgent. During dinner the Duchess 
told me that she had that day been informed that the 
young man whom I had seen at her house, and whom she 
had called Prince Karageorgewitch, was accustomed to 
call himself by that name, but he in no way belonged, as 
he claimed, to the princely family of Servian pretenders. 
I took this opportunity to tell her that she ought 
to be extremely circumspect as to the choice of 
her habitual guests, and that, without wishing to 
mention any names, there were among them certain 
persons who gave rather an unfavourable impression, 
and this influenced people in their judgment in regard 
to her. She thanked me warmly, and, with that 
energy which always distinguished her, told me, on my 
next visit, that she had closed her door to some of her 
usual visitors, whose names she mentioned. This proved 
to me that she had very accurately judged the persons 
whom she was bound to exclude from her society. 

In these pages I intend to relate an event which 
deserves to figure in my personal reminiscences, but I 



ALVA 165 

do not wish, by giving details not directly bearing upon 
this story, to lengthen needlessly the tale which I am 
now narrating. So I shall not speak of the visits which 
ensued, nor of the incidents that occurred during the 
three or four months following upon the first dinner of 
the Duchess at which I was present. What I can say, 
and what I feel bound to say, is that my attachment to 
these two women increased as I began to know them 
better, and it rapidly developed into veritable friendship. 
Both of them, each in her own way, were calculated to 
captivate: the one by the remarkable maturity of her 
superior and cultivated intelligence, her upright conduct, 
her native penetration and rare knowledge of men and 
things, of which for the most part she made no display, 
but which became evident whenever she took pains to 
analyse her thoughts; the other, Alva, by her youthful 
radiance, her eloquence and simplicity, her gentle and 
fascinating melancholy, and by the intellectual precocity 
that was so noticeable whenever — which was rare — she 
chanced to take part in the conversation. 

About the end of April, 1879, however, it seemed to 
me that a significant change was taking place in the 
existence of these two women. The mother was more 
nervous and irritable; more reserved than heretofore. 
The quivering of her nostrils and the way in which she 
knit her brows betrayed now and then her excitement; 
her lips, previously so apt to smile, had strange twitchings ; 
and she gave her orders more sharply and imperiously 
than was her wont. The girl, on such occasions, gave 
her mother an anxious and melancholy look, and more 
than once I noticed that her lashes were wet with a 
quickly suppressed tear. The change disturbed me. 



1 66 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

but such was the attitude of these two women that I 
should have thought it indiscreet to display the slightest 
anxiety. This state of things continued and even 
became more accentuated. It was, to be sure, purely 
a moral impression I had, for, apart from what I have 
noted, there had been no alteration in the style in which 
the Duchess lived. She received at the same hours 
exactly in the same manner as before; she went out as 
usual, did her shopping and errands as before; and the 
hotel servants, when she came down into the court- 
yard to enter her brougham or her open carriage, bowed 
with the same respect as they had always shown, as she 
passed. I was much perplexed by all this, and such 
was now my friendship for these two ladies that I could not 
help feeling real anxiety. I suffered at being kept in the 
dark with regard to their troubles. This situation, 
which was so painful to me, continued until nearly the 
middle of June, and as I thought that my visits caused 
sometimes a painful embarrassment I began to go less 
frequently, and, in spite of the real privation that I felt, 
I now remaine4 at times almost a week without calling 
on the Duchess. 

Toward the middle of June, during one of the rare 
visits which I then made them, I tried, by cordial phrases, 
to attenuate my indiscretion in coming to see them, when 
the Duchess suddenly seemed to want to enter upon a 
conversation of a confidential character. She exclaimed : 

" I must tell you " 

Just then her eyes fell upon Alva. I cannot say what 
she read upon the girl's face, but she stopped short, and, 
as she appeared to have grown somewhat nervous, I 
hastily got up and took leave of her. As I crossed the 



ALVA 167 

hotel court the manager appeared in the doorway of his 
office, as though he wanted to speak to me. I went to 
meet him and he asked me into his room. He shut the 
door and said: 

"You must excuse me, sir, for what I am going to tell 
you, but a few months ago, before you knew the Duchess, 
you asked for accurate information in regard to her, 
which I gave you; since then you have become, in the 
eyes of the Duchess and her daughter, the real friend of 
the house. I feel bound to tell you, for it seems to me 
to be a duty, that during the last two months certain 
things have been going on here which will perhaps seem 
to you, as they do to me, disquieting. Since the first of 
May this lady has neither asked for nor settled her hotel 
bill, which amounts to-day to about eighteen thousand 
francs. She has made many purchases and, contrary to 
her custom, has not paid for them immediately, but has 
even sent back some of the bills, asking for a delay ; and 
if I am not mistaken, the Duchess, during the two and a 
half months in which this change has been taking place, 
must have become indebted to the extent of more than 
fifty thousand francs, for, as often happens in cases of the 
kind, she has bought some new things in order to defer 
payment of those for which she already owes. I must 
even add that for some time now I see, hovering about 
the hotel, personages who appear to be spying on her ; that 
I have received the visit of an official who came to make 
a detailed inquiry as to the Duchess and her daughter; 
and that this lady's servants appear worried. It seemed 
to me I ought to inform you of all this lest you should 
be surprised by some event which might annoy you." 

It will readily be understood that I was impressed and 



i68 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

disturbed by this communication. I passed a bad night, 
and the next morning wrote to the Duchess asking her to 
receive me at three o'clock. 

At that hour I arrived at her house. I was ushered 
in and found her alone. With a great deal of precaution 
and considerable apprehension I explained to her that 
I felt it my duty to repeat to her what the manager of 
the hotel had said to me. She listened to me in silence. 
Two big tears ran down her cheeks. 

"What the manager of the hotel has told you," she 
said, after a pause, "is true. For three months now I 
have been completely without funds. I thought, and 
still think, that I shall get my money back. I did not 
wish to change my way of living — in the first place, out 
of pride, which you will understand; secondly, not to 
alarm Alva. The time has come, though, to tell you 
what you do not yet know, and what on more than one 
occasion I have intended to tell you, without, however, 
daring to do so. Among all the persons I have known, 
you are the one who has shown me the most serious, the 
most sincere and the most disinterested sympathy; and 
you are the one in whom Alva and I feel the most confi- 
dence and for whom we cherish the greatest friendship. 
I am going, therefore, to tell you everything, and you can 
then judge whether you should respond to the appeal 
which I am going to make to you. 

"Alva, whom I call my child, is not my daughter. She 
belongs to a royal house ; she is the daughter of a princess, 
and the explanation of the ducal crown visible on every- 
thing belonging to us here is that most, of these objects 
come from her mother, and that Alva, in reality, if not 
by right, can claim the crown. She was born when her 



ALVA 169 

mother was only eighteen years old. Alva is remarkably 
like her mother, who was very beautiful. Her father 
was a captain in an Austrian regiment garrisoned in the 
Germanic confederation. I was her maid of honour. 
When I heard of the affair, her suffering attached me to 
her more than ever, and after having been her confidante 
I became her accomplice. We wept long over the situa- 
tion together. Finally, an idea came to me which 
simplified the whole situation, and I felt that I had found 
a way of saving her, I will even say of saving us, for, if 
the truth became known, I was in as much danger as she 
was, and perhaps even more. Without telling her my 
plan, I went to one of the Court physicians for whom I 
entertained the greatest admiration. Unhesitatingly, 
and after he had promised to keep my disclosure a secret, 
I told him all I know. 

"Doctor Alven — we will call him thus, for it was 
under that name that he took, later on, all the necessary 
steps — ^Doctor Alven listened in silence, and when I had 
finished said: 

" 'Tell Madame that she must not appear to-night at 
dinner ; that she must go to bed and complain of violent 
headaches and of great difficulty in breathing. Then, 
to-morrow morning early let her send for me to visit 
her. Do not worry. I hope that I shall find a way to 
save you both.' 

" Doctor Alven ordered her to take a potion. The 
consequence of this draught was that the face of the 
unfortunate Princess became violently red and a heavy 
fever ensued. Our rescuer submitted her to this treat- 
ment for two weeks. He directed me to stay with her,- 
because she wanted to be nursed only by me. Two 



I70 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

weeks later, the Court having meanwhile been greatly 
alarmed, and with the exaggeration habitual in such 
cases having announced her death on the sixteenth day, 
at Doctor Alven's request and by order of the Sovereign 
there was a consultation of physicians. The father of 
the Princess was present, and the doctors adopted Doctor 
Alven's suggestion, declaring that the only way of saving 
her was, first, to send her away to the south of France, 
and then, accompanied by a young doctor recommended 
by Alven, to have her travel in Algeria, Cairo, the Canary 
and the Balearic Islands. 

" Doctor Alven declared that he would give the Princess 
certain potions which, in spite of her weak condition, 
would enable her to start, adding, in order that the 
illness should not give rise to any alarming rumours, that 
she must leave without any sort of ostentation and 
travel incognito. 

"Doctor Alven's plans were adopted, and three days 
later in the evening we set out, under the most favourable 
circumstances possible, accompanied by Hugot, the 
butler, who is still with me, by the young doctor, who left 
us a little later, and by the two lady's maids, who are still 
in our service. 

" We left immediately for one of the estates belonging 
to the Princess beyond the frontier, a domain which came 
to her direct from one of her aunts. It had not long been 
at her disposal, as she had only a short time attained her 
majority, and on that occasion her father had reduced by 
half the personal appanage which she enjoyed. 

"On reaching our destination the Princess sent for the 
official who governed the district and the functionary 
who dealt with all matters pertaining to the attestation 



ALVA 171 

of contracts. In their presence the Princess had an act 
drawn up in which she authorised her steward, assisted 
by the Governor of the district, to make a transfer, upon 
an order signed by her, of her entire property, and to 
convert the sum thus obtained into paper, consols. 
Government annuities, municipal bonds and railway 
shares, according to Doctor Alven's indications. All this 
property when realised was, at the Princess's orders, 
to be entrusted by the Governor of the district and the 
steward, acting conjointly, to the person indicated by 
the Princess in the two orders which she proposed to 
send them. 

"I will not needlessly lengthen this story. We made 
all the peregrinations that had been planned for us, until 
finally the Princess was conducted into a Hungarian 
convent, the Superioress of which was a sister of Doctor 
Alven, The Princess and I were installed with our 
servants and the Doctor in a cottage at a remote comer 
of the convent park, where there was a private entrance, 
and where we lived well removed from curious eyes, even 
from those of the nuns. As the convent was the seat of 
the head of the order, and sent out nuns on missions in 
all directions, whenever one of them left she was ordered, 
on reaching her destination, to post letters to the Court, 
so that it should appear as though we were still travelling. 

" When the young Doctor left us to return to the Court, 
he announced that the Princess, now completely recovered, 
was coming home. The child, a girl, was inscribed on the 
convent registers simply under the name of Alva, the 
Princess herself having chosen the name out of grati- 
tude to Doctor Alven. The Superior found a nurse for 
her, and a few months later nurse and child were intro- 



172 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

duced into the convent, the latter passing for a daughter 
of a niece of the Superior. 

"My dear and unfortunate mistress wept bitterly 
when she was told that she must live separated from her 
child. I did my best to console her, promising that she 
should see her shortly and that, with Alven's aid, we 
would return before long to the convent. 

"Two months later, early in 1862, we returned to the 
Court. No one there had the slightest suspicion of what 
had occurred. The young Doctor had said nothing on 
account of his professional duty. The devotion of the 
three servants amounted to heroism, and Doctor Alven 
avoided any step that could have given rise to a 
suspicion of there being anything special between him 
and us. 

"Eleven years elapsed. The Princess had found it 
impossible to undertake the journey she longed to make. 
Alva had been separated from her nurse, and she con- 
tinued to be educated at the convent in the most perfect 
manner possible. She was loved there, all the nuns 
doing their best to contribute to her intellectual and 
physical development. 

"Great political changes had taken place meanwhile. 
Austria had come forth from the Germanic confedera- 
tion. The war of 1870-71 had altogether modified the 
confederated sovereignties of Germany. The Princess, 
who possessed a fairly important appanage, and also, as I 
have said, estates abroad which she had inherited from 
one of her aunts, was more eager than ever to realise her 
property, which, transformed into paper, would have a 
value of more than five millions of francs. She was bent 
on leaving her country and taking refuge with Alva in a 



ALVA 173 

foreign land, whence it would be impossible to compel 
her to return. 

"Alas ! just then a terrible misfortune befell us. Our 
presence in the convent, which we had fancied abso- 
lutely unknown to any one, had been witnessed by the 
gardener — the park-keeper, who never penetrated into 
the convent, but who lived in a small house at the farther 
extremity of the grounds, a house which, like our own, 
possessed an independent entrance. His attention had 
been drawn to what went on in our cottage. He 
had played the spy and discovered everything save our 
identity. 

"Unfortunately, one of the nuns who had been sent 
out of the convent on a mission and had imperfectly 
understood her instructions in regard to posting one of the 
Princess's letters, entrusted it to the gardener whom she 
met as she was leaving. He, suspecting that there was 
some relation between this letter and the mystery of the 
cottage, did not hesitate an instant to read it. The 
address, the signature and the contents of it gave him 
the key to the whole mystery. This man, I cannot say 
why, had just been brutally deprived of his place, and 
without the slightest hesitation he resolved to take his 
revenge in revealing to the Princess's father the mystery 
that he had discovered. 

"The latter' s indignation was terrible. He had an 
attack and his life was in danger. At 11 p. m. Doctor 
Alven was sent for, and he took all the necessary measures 
to prevent the father in his wrath from revealing the 
secret, for the Doctor had just become aware of the 
frightful danger with which we were menaced. 

" "Without a minute's delay he went to see the Princess, 



174 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

awoke Hugot, and ordered the maids to awaken the 
Princess and myself. 

"We immediately prepared to receive the Doctor. 
He communicated to us the terrible news. He informed 
us that it was particularly against me that the 
Sovereign's exasperation was directed, and said that, 
accompanied by Hugot and by 'the two maids, for 
whom he dreaded a terrible punishment, I must flee 
without losing a moment. On leaving, he informed us 
that an hour later his landau, with two of his best horses, 
Avould await us at a side door, and that we should be driven 
across the frontier, which was only nine miles away. 

"Hugot and the two maids, who were cool and collected 
through all this, had quickly prepared, in several bags, 
everything of which I stood in immediate need, and I, 
on my part, collected all my jewels and all the silver 
that the Princess and I possessed. 

"It was 4 A. M. when we started, and it was hardly 
five o'clock when we had crossed the frontier. As 
the first anticipated action taken against the Princess 
would be the kidnapping of Alva without a minute's 
delay, armed with a letter from Alven I set out for 
the convent, where I immediately saw the Superioress. 
Two hours later Alva — ^to whom some years before I had 
paid a visit of several days on the pretext of visiting, 
during a holiday, an estate of mine on the Danube — was 
entrusted to my care. 

"Alva, who, save the nuns, had never seen any one 
but myself, and who knew all the tenderness I felt for 
her — ^Alva vaguely, so to speak, believed that I was her 
mother. She flung herself effusively into my arms and 
was glad to go with me. 



ALVA 175 

"We settled down, with Hugot and the two maids, 
on my estate. It was in an independent coimtry and 
I knew we were quite safe. I devoted myself to Alva's 
education, having at my disposal more than adequate 
resources sent to me by the steward from the abundant 
revenues of the Princess's lands ; and we lived there for 
some years, pending the events which were to bring to us 
the solution of the painful situation in which we found 
ourselves." 

"Meanwhile terrible scenes were being enacted at the 
Court. The reigning Prince, on being apprised of what 
he called the disgrace of his house, was in such a paroxysm 
of wrath that he himself, so deprived was he of all com- 
mon sense, did not dare to face his daughter, the Princess. 

"The miserable informer, the gardener, immediately 
after having told his tale in the presence of the Prince, 
had been imprisoned. He was now sent for and obliged 
to sign a declaration which might involve a death sentence 
for him. An important sum of money was given to him, 
he was taken to Bremen under good escort, and sent off 
to one of the American States, with orders never, under 
pain of death, either to reveal a word of what he knew or to 
return to Europe. Moreover, several months ago, Alven 
informed me that news had been received of his death. 

"Immediately after his departure, the Prince, who 
had been informed of the exact whereabouts of Alva, 
had sent three men, on whose loyalty and decision he 
could rely, to kidnap her. As you know, they arrived 
too late. But the unfortunate Princess was the object 
of the most monstrous persecution. All her attendants 
had been changed. Her two maids were two jailers, 
who never allowed her out of their sight, and who passed 



176 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

their time in torturing her. Her health suffered greatly. 
Partial paralysis set in. At her request Alven was sent 
for. The Doctor asked to be left alone with her, and his 
request was granted. He did not conceal from her that 
she was nearing her end. She displayed real heroism. 
Her only sorrow was at not seeing her child. She made 
all the necessary arrangements, and entrusted to the 
Doctor a copy of the document which she had had drawn 
up for the sale of her property, and the order to convert 
it into securities which, in case of her death, were to be 
given to me. At a second visit of the Doctor, who de- 
clared to her that she could never undertake another 
journey, she wrote to me with his aid that, when her 
landed property had been converted and the securities 
entrusted to me, she begged me to go with Alva to London, 
taking the securities with me, to deposit them in one of 
the large English banks which she named, and to use the 
revenue for the common benefit of Alva and myself 
until God should allow her to join us. 

"The question of the sale and transfer of her property 
took some time, for there was great need of discretion, and 
it was only toward the middle of 1875 that the steward 
and the Governor of the district brought me the product 
of the sale in two immense boxes, accompanied with a 
duplicate of the contents. 

"The total amounted to a little more than ;^2oo,ooo, 
which gave an annual income of ;^9,ooo, or about £7$'^ 
a month. 

"We left my estate several days later, and I went 
quietly away with my dear Alva to London under an 
assumed name, I deposited the securities in my name 
in the bank indicated, and whilst awaiting the time when 



ALVA 177 

the Princess could travel and join us, we devoted our days, 
and a certain portion of our revenues, to completing 
and perfecting the education of Alva, to whom thus far 
I had avoided revealing her origin, 

"Alas ! Alva could not long endure the English climate, 
and just when, with her consent, I was planning to go to 
spend the winter in Cairo or Algiers, there reached us the 
painful news of the death of my dear and beloved Princess. 

"My grief was such that I could not help sharing it 
with Alva, and revealed to the girl her origin as well as 
her mother's death. Alva was in profound despair, and 
as I perceived that her health was suffering thereby, I 
resolutely left London, and we visited in succession 
Cairo, the Canary Islands, Palermo and Algeria. 

' 'Alva had quite recovered her health and the splendour 
of her youthful beauty, and, as we both needed rest and a 
fixed abode, at her wish we went on to Paris, where we 
have now been residing for twenty months. 

"I am doing my best to make the narrative short, but 
I am bound to explain everything, since I must finally 
appeal to your friendship, which, although not of very long 
standing, is, nevertheless, one in which I have the most 
complete confidence, 

"I have now reached the epoch of our sojourn in Paris. 
I knew we had been hunted for, but as we often changed 
our name and residence, and as we were quite independ- 
ent, we never made any debts, and, in a word, did 
nothing that could attract special attention, it was really 
almost impossible to discover us. Moreover, ever since 
the death of the Princess, I had been aware that sooner 
or later there would be attacks against me, for I knew 
the harshness and avarice of those who had survived my 



178 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

unhappy friend. For some time past I had been worried 
by the complexity of the requirements necessary for 
receiving my income, all the securities being in England. 
I mentioned these annoyances to one of the employees 
of the bank who was acting as my agent, and who, I 
may say in parenthesis, is at the present time behaving 
himself abominably toward me. 

" 'Madame,' replied this employee, 'nothing could be 
easier to remedy. We receive every day quantities of 
securities from London under policies of insurance. 
You have only to direct your London banker to give to 
one of our London agents, in exchange for our receipt, 
the papers deposited with him, and we will receive them, 
merely charging you for the insurance policy and the 
carriage. We will place at your disposal one of our safes, 
with a receipt to that effect.' 

"Unfortunately I accepted this proposition, and this 
is what has been done. Hugot on the first of every 
month used to go with my receipt to the bank, where 
the cashier, who was thoroughly trustworthy, regularly 
detached the coupons from my securities in honouring 
my monthly receipt. 

"A few months ago, one of the detectives sent to dis- 
cover our whereabouts found out our address. He had 
met Hugot, whom he recognised, in the street, and 
followed him to our hotel, where, quite quietly, he took 
rooms in order to watch us. He kept his eye especially 
on Hugot, and finally discovered the bank where our 
money was deposited. And thus it came to pass when, 
about three months ago, Hugot went to the bank with 
my receipt, the cashier informed him that he could 
not honour it, regular opposition having been noti- 



ALVA 179 

fied on behalf of a foreign Court by one of the great 
Embassies. 

"Hugot returned in utter consternation. You can 
imagine the effect of this news upon me. I rushed off to 
the bank. I asked if I could not be given a sum quite out- 
side and apart from my revenue, but this was refused. 
Such was the nature of the opposition that it had aroused 
suspicions against me at the bank. I returned home in 
despair. The manager of the hotel, to whom, without 
giving any details, I communicated the fact of my momen- 
tary embarrassment, behaved admirably, and requested 
me to make no change in my manner of living. 

"I immediately wrote to Alven, with whom I can 
correspond without any danger, but he was away from 
home, and I had to wait for a reply until his return. 

"When he got back he sent me a legal adviser whom I 
could trust. We went together to consult one of the 
most eminent members of the French bar. He asked 
me to show him the titles guaranteeing my right to the 
property. I possessed nothing but the London banker's 
receipt and that of the Paris banker. He declared that 
these two receipts appeared to him insufficient to secure 
the cancelling of the opposition, but that in any case 
I could bring legal action. The result, however, in the 
dearth of further documents, appeared to him doubtful. 
I refused to bring an aclfion, dreading sensation and 
scandal, newspaper articles and reporters, and the whole 
horror of a situation which was sure to end disastrously. 

"The lawyer then went back to Alven, who began to 
consider what should be done. Such is my present situa- 
tion, and it is your own communication to me which has 
led me to reveal to you these facts. I have long wanted 



i8o MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

to mention them to you, but now that you have heard 
my story you can understand why I have hesitated, 
fearing to place myself in a painful light if I had done so 
earlier. If I do so now, it is because you yourself have 
afforded me the occasion by taking, so to speak, the first 
step. And now, if you will come to see me to-morrow> 
and if you are disposed to champion my cause, as I 
think you are, I will tell you the service which I have 
to ask of you." 

When I returned on the morrow she had, indeed, 
reflected. 

"I know," she said, "that Monsieur Waddington, the 
Prime Minister, is a great friend of yours, and it is said 
you have rendered him many services for which he is 
grateful. We must learn from him how this opposition 
has been obtained, for our enemies, you understand, 
have fewer rights to put forward than I, as, after all, I 
am in possession of my fortune, and the opposition in 
question is, in spite of, or because of, its validity, an ab- 
solutely arbitrary act. I want you to go to see Monsieur 
Waddington, to explain the situation to him, to ask 
him to find out how and on what grounds the opposition 
has been taken, and then to use his authority to protect 
me against the injustice of which I am the victim." 

What Marsa had said was perfectly true. M. Wadding- 
ton cherished a real sentiment of gratitude toward me. 
On the 12th of November, 1877, at the fall of the Cabinet 
of the 1 6th of May, M. Dufaure was about to form his 
ministry, in which M. Waddington was to take the port- 
folio of education and the Count de Saint Vallier that 
of Foreign Affairs. 

At the request of some friends I went to see M. Dufaure, 



ALVA i8i 

who always showed me the greatest good-will, and 
proved to him that he ought to give the portfolio of 
education to M. Bardoux, his former associate at the 
Ministry of Justice, that M. de Saint Vallier, for whom 
Prince Bismarck professed particular sympathy, ought 
to be sent to Berlin, and that for peremptory reasons he 
ought to give the ministry of foreign affairs to M. Wad- 
dington. To this M. Dufaure agreed, and on the spot 
he confided to me the mission of seeing M. Waddington 
and, in his name, of offering him the ministry of for- 
eign affairs, instead of that of education. I went 
immediately, in spite of the late hour, to the Rue Du- 
mont d'Urville, to M. Waddington's house, to fulfil the 
mission entrusted to me. 

M. Waddington, after some hesitation, and notwith- 
standing Madame Waddington's energetic opposition, 
accepted the offer and became Minister of Foreign Affairs 
in the Dufaure Cabinet. It was thus that he took part, 
as first Plenipotentiary, in the Berlin Congress, where, 
throughout the sessions, from the beginning to the end, 
I was fortunate enough to render him daily services, and 
where I constantly defended him by word and pen against 
the attacks of the French newspapers. 

After the Congress I explained and upheld his acts to 
his chief, M. Dufaure, the Prime Minister, and finally, in a 
long talk with M. Gambetta, a summary of which, in 
the form of an interview, appeared in the Times, and 
was, by M. Gambetta's orders, reproduced in the R/piib- 
Itque Frangaise, I brought about between the two a 
rapprochement, as a consequence of which M. Gambetta 
abandoned his hostility toward M. Waddington. 

The latter, moreover, never ceased to show his affection 



I82 



MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 



for me, and when Marsa proposed to me to see him 
I readily consented, sure in advance that I should 
succeed, and delighted at the thought of making 
her happy. 

As I was crossing the courtyard of the hotel, I perceived 
the manager looking at me from his office door. I went 
up to him and told him that what he had said the night 
before was true, but that the embarrassment of the 
Duchess was temporary, and that I begged him to make 
no change in his manner toward her, and even to speak 
to the shopkeepers, in order to induce them to continue 
to extend their confidence to the Duchess, for, I added, 
"I guarantee that neither you nor any one will lose a 
penny." The manager was delighted and promised to 
do what I asked. I felt no anxiety in standing surety for 
Marsa after what she had said, and, convinced as I was 
that I should succeed almost immediately in arranging 
matters, this detail seemed quite natural. 

I went off to the Quai d'Orsay to see M. Waddington. 
He received me with his customary warmth. I asked 
him if he had time to listen to me. He rang for the usher, 
gave orders that he should not be disturbed until he 
called, and, opening the door that led into the bureau of 
his Chef de Cabinet, gave similar orders there. He 
listened to me attentively, insisting that I should omit 
no detail, now and then showing that my story touched 
him. When I had finished, he said : 

" I thank you for telling me this, although I am really 
troubled about it; but my knowledge of the affair was 
very slight. I had heard of it, but had attached little 
importance to the matter. I am going to examine it 
carefully and without delay. If you will come back at 



ALVA 183 

2.30 to-morrow I hope to be able to give you every 
satisfaction." 

I rushed off to Marsa to report the good news. She 
was delighted and said to me : 

" I have only just received a letter from Alven, of which 
I will speak to you to-morrow when all is over, although 
I may tell you that he says, even if I do not succeed in 
averting the perfidious attack of which I am the object, 
I must not despair." 

"I hope," I replied, "that the day after to-morrow I 
shall bring you a definite solution, and that you will 
have no need of appealing to Doctor Alven." 

Alas ! I did not bring her on that date a definite 
solution. I found M. Waddington nervous and anxious, 
almost irritated. He had immediately investigated 
the matter. 

" I have made the necessary inquiry," he said. "Although 
I regret it, I am bound to tell you frankly that I cannot 
possibly agree to do what you ask of me. We are face to 
face with the direct intervention of a powerful Ambassador, 
acting under the orders of his Government. The opposi- 
tion to the payment is perfectly regular, and we are on 
the point of receiving proofs of its validity and of the 
rights of seizure which are demanded. I beg you to 
excuse me for what I am going to say, but your two 
protegees are described as adventuresses and accused of 
embezzlement, while the story of the daughter of a royal 
Princess is treated as a ridiculous fable. She is said to be 
merely the illegitimate child of the woman called the 
Duchess, and the latter is accused of having taken 
advantage of the insanity of the Princess, whose maid 
of honour she was, to steal from her the estate settled on 



i84 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

her. In order to satisfy you, I should have first to talk 
the matter over with the President of the Republic, and 
then bring it before the Cabinet Council. But I am sure 
I should have M. Grevy against me as well as the Cabinet 
— that is to say, I should have to resign, which would 
in no way advance matters, for, after all, I may perhaps 
be able to be of service to you," 

I got up hastily. M. Waddington reproached me for 
my brusk movement, and, as I saw that he deeply 
regretted the whole affair, the idea of Doctor Alven's 
letter came to me, and, quite by chance, and in order to 
gain time, I said to M. Waddington that I had promised 
to stand surety for Marsa, that I was personally much 
embarrassed, and, since he was to be shown the proofs of 
the legality of the opposition, I begged him to grant me a 
little time. "Since the proof is to be given you," I said, 
"you may at all events, in some way or other, find a way 
of postponing the seizure for several months, particularly 
as I shall be greatly inconvenienced now that I am surety 
for these ladies." 

M. Waddington was really troubled. "I think," he 
said, "that you have the truth on your side. Your story 
must be true, for you were the first to show me how to 
verify it. But I can do nothing against the state of 
things which would appear like assuming an insulting 
attitude against the honoured representative of a great 
power. Yet, in order to prove to you my complete good 
faith, I promise that the authorisation for the seizure 
shall not be granted before August 15th. That, I fear, 
is all I can do for you." 

Evidently, if Marsa did not faint on my telling her this, 
it was because she still had faith in Alven, and because she 



ALVA 185 

saw me, too, in such despair that she had recourse to all 
her energy. She said to me : 

"Alven is at present at Samaden in the Engadine, in 
charge of a distinguished patient, whom he cannot leave 
for a single day. He keeps me apprised of what is going 
on. They are trying to collect the documents to prove 
that the Princess was insane before she sold her lands and 
before giving me the securities, Alven has interfered 
heroically in this infamous plot. Other doctors have 
come to his rescue. He does not know whether he will 
succeed in thwarting this scheme, but in any case it will 
take some time for things to come to a crisis, Alven begs 
me to go to him with Alva, whom he longs to see. He 
does not know, my poor dear friend, that I am myself a 
prisoner, and that in spite of your intervention with my 
creditors, my departure would look like flight, that I 
should receive a legal summons, and that we should be 
ruined. Yet Alven declares that he must know abso- 
lutely all the details of what has occurred, and this can 
be only viva voce. Moreover, I must be prompt, for he is 
about to leave Samaden with his patient, probably for 
Cairo." 

" And what are you going to do ?" I asked. 

She blushed, then grew pale. After a few moments of 
hesitation, she finally said : 

"I am going to appeal to the greatest devotion, the 
greatest abnegation, the greatest sentiment of honour, of 
which a man can give proof to two women whom he does 
not know. Will you accompany Alva with one of my maids 
to Samaden? I know that in confiding her to your 
honour I am not wanting in my duty toward her. But I 
do not wish it to be known that Alven has met her — • 



1 86 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

first, because they would take vengeance on him, and 
secondly, because, if proved, this meeting would destroy 
the intervention against the declaration of madness, and 
everything would be lost." 

" But when shall we start ?" I asked. 

She grasped my hand and kissed it, covering it with 
tears. 

" Your kindness consoles me for all my woes. You will 
leave on the fourteenth; Hugot, who will precede you, 
will await you at Lucerne, where you will arrive on the 
morning of the fifteenth. Go to the Hotel National, 
where he will be introduced to you by the hotel people 
and offer his services as courier. He knows quite well 
what to do and is well acquainted with the country. 
He will conduct you to Samaden and even farther, as a 
tourist travelling by post-chaise. At Samaden you will 
go to the hotel where Alven is stopping. Alva, toward 
II p. M., will feel unwell, and Hugot, in seeking a doctor, 
will naturally appeal to Alven, who will have returned 
half an hour earlier. Alva will remain ill two days, 
during which time she will be taken care of by her maid ; 
and you three — ^Alva, you and Alven — will thus have 
ample time to talk without arousing suspicion, and to do 
what Alven tells you or directs me to do. ' ' 

She interrupted her explanations and paused some 
length of time. Then resolutely, as if summoning all her 
courage, she said : 

"Alas ! this is not all; but at present I dare not part 
with the little money that remains, and " 

I interrupted her : 

"Do not let us lose precious moments in futile words. 
I shall be delighted to take this trip, and I am sure that 



ALVA 187 

Alva's presence will make it more charming. I will 
advance the money. If you recover your property, you 
will give me back Alva's half of the expenses. If not, I 
shall endeavour to bear the loss." 

On the morning of July 15th we arrived at Lucerne, 
at the Hotel National. We waited for Hugot. Toward 
noon the manager of the hotel, then the famous M. Ritz, 
came to see me and informed me that a courier, who 
had just left a family whom he had accompanied to 
Lucerne, offered me his services. It was Hugot. 

I wanted to start immediately, but Alva was fatigued 
and wanted to rest until the morrow. Moreover — and 
this was a very feminine trait — in spite of all I could say, 
and although we were thus losing a day, she refused to 
continue our journey without having made the ascent of 
the Rigi. I had to yield. Hugot was to leave on the 
morrow for Fluellen at the end of the Lake of Four 
Cantons, where he transported our baggage, and we and 
the maid were to stop at Vitznau, lunch on the Rigi, take 
the afternoon boat, and meet Hugo at Fluellen. 

We found him there with the hotel carriage, and he 
told us he had engaged a four-horse team, such as is 
habitually employed for this route, to drive by the 
St. Gothard, by Andermatten and Chiaso to Lugano, 
where we should cross the lake to continue, on the oppo- 
site shore, our journey to Samaden. We started on the 
following morning, and an incident on the route depressed 
us by the lugubrious presentiments that it inspired, but 
which, happily, were not realised. 

Two years before I had gone from the Rigi, 
where I was staying, to Goeschenen, to visit the works 
in the St. Gothard tunnel. I had been received most 



1 88 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

hospitably there by M. Fabre, the contractor of the 
tunnel, and he had shown me the work that had already 
been accomplished. When, two years later, I passed 
with Alva by Goeschenen, in front of the very hotel 
where I had been received, I was asked to stop my 
carriage, and I saw, issuing from the tunnel, an immense 
procession of men in dark clothes following a coffin, 
which passed before us. They were workmen of the 
tunnel accompanying to his last resting-place the body 
of M. Fabre. I was much impressed by the somber 
coincidence, and arrived with a heavy heart at Ander- 
matten, whence without further incident Vv^e proceeded 
to Samaden. 

There we remained two days. Alven was informed of 
all the necessary details. He was delighted to see Alva, 
and he parted from her in despair. Hugot's conduct 
had been admirable. Not the slightest suspicion had 
arisen in regard to us. When I went away, Alven gave 
me a large and heavy letter in a double envelope, saying : 

"Take great care of it; it is perhaps salvation itself . 
I have rendered to the omnipotent person to whom it is 
addressed the greatest service a man can render to 
another man. I saved from certain death a human being 
he adored. He has always said that there was nothing 
he would refuse me. It is the first time I have ever 
appealed to him, and if, on returning to Paris, the situation 
has not yet improved, tear open the first envelope and 
carry the letter, without even showing it to Marsa, 
to the address on the second envelope." 

Alva returned to her hotel, accompanied by Hugot 
and her maid, and on the morrow, Marsa having informed 
me that there had been no change, I tore open the first 



ALVA 189 

envelope and saw that the second was addressed, with 
the word "Confidential," to "Prince Orloff, Ambassador 
of H. M. the Emperor of all the Russias, Paris." 

When on the address of the second envelope I saw 
Prince Orloff's name I was delighted, for I knew the 
intervention would be a powerful one, and that my rela- 
tions with the Prince would permit me to make the most 
of it. I hastened to see him. Without offering any 
explanations, I handed to him Alven's voluminous 
missive. When he had opened it and looked at the 
signature, he said to me with a voice full of emotion : 

"Ah ! you come from a man who is as dear to me as any 
one in this world outside of my family ; but I see that the 
letter is very long. I should like to read it carefully, 
whatever may be its contents, and we will talk about it 
to-morrow if you will come back then." 

I returned on the following day and found him in a 
somewhat excited state. 

" I will do all that is possible for a man to do," said he, 
"all that is not contrary to my absolute duty, all, and 
I am ready to talk with you." 

The conversation was a long one, and more than once 
he exclaimed : 

" What ! this girl whom you call Alva is the daughter of 
that adorable, that ever memorable Princess who was the 
great star of my youth, and whose mystery I have never 
been able to fathom! I will do everything, but what 
can I do?" 

"You must go to see M. Waddington," I replied, "to 
destroy the effect of the abominable calumnies that have 
been told him, to show to him the infamy of the whole 
spoliation in which they want to make him their accom- 



I90 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

plice, and, if he refuses to listen to you, declare to him 
that you will ask for your passports." 

"Yes," said he, "I will do all except the last part, for, 
if I declare that in case of refusal I shall ask for my pass- 
ports, it would be a threat to which he could not yield 
without compromising the dignity of his country. I 
shall confine myself, therefore, to the first part of the 
programme, and we shall see what happens." 

This he did, and, as a consequence, M. Waddington told 
him that he would submit the case to a still closer examina- 
tion and inform him as to the result. 

We waited two days, but nothing happened. I returned 
to see Prince Orloff . 

"I think I know," said I, "what is taking place. They 
find themselves between the pressing intervention of 
two powerful Ambassadors. They are going to try to 
drag the affair along, and they will inform the Ambassa- 
dor, our opponent, to hasten to present, without further 
delay, the promised proof. But we, on our side, have no 
time to lose. Every day is precious, and we ought to 
push the matter forward or all is lost. " 

"What, then, do you advise?" asked the Prince. 

"I will tell you," I said. "Your Excellency, I am well 
aware, cannot directly threaten to hand in your passports, 
but I can go to see M. Waddington and tell him if he 
refuses to accomplish the act of justice which he demands, 
you are bound to consider it as a personal offense and will 
then feel it your duty to demand your passports." 

"But he will think you are merely talking," was the 
reply, "and will pay no heed to it." 

"No," said I, "if you will do what I ask, I will say to 
him if he expresses any doubt, that, to prove to him the 



. ALVA 191 

accuracy of my words, you will go to see him at 4 : 45 — 
that is to say, a quarter of an hour before what is termed 
the 'signature time,' when visitors are not allowed to 
remain any longer — and that you will merely say to him, 
in giving him your hand, without another word, 'I come 
to say that I have authorised M. de Blowitz to speak to 
you as he has done, and I hope that on my next visit I 
shall have to thank you.' Then you will give him a 
good hand-shake and take your leave." 

"So be it," he answered; "only let me know if he 
expects me." 

When I had explained to M. Waddington the motive of 
my visit he exclaimed excitedly and almost angrily: 
"But it is araison d'etat that you are creating of this. 
You are placing two great Ambassadors in opposition 
to each other. Yet we cannot forget Prince Orloff's 
attitude in 1875, when the German military party threat- 
ened us with a second invasion. I await Prince Orloff's 
visit, and if he comes, I promise, you that I will carry 
the whole business before the President of the Republic 
and call his special attention to it." 

Prince Orloff's visit took place, and three days later 
M. Waddington sent for me. 

"The President, the Minister of Justice and I have had 
two conversations during the last three days, and here 
is our decision. We cannot offend the Embassy that is 
your opponent, and I have declared that the situation 
cannot go on as it is. We shall wait six days longer, and 
if within that period the incontestable justification has not 
reached us, the Minister of Justice will order the raising of 
the opposition. Moreover, the present situation is unpre- 
cedented. Neither the lady who possesses the fortune 



192 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

nor those who formulate the opposition can justify, nor 
probably ever will be able to prove a right to this property ; 
and if this should go on we should be obliged to hand 
over these securities to the Caisse des Depots et Consigna- 
tions, and this would probably be the end of them. We 
should thus bequeath to the State endless difficulties for 
the future, which it is our duty to try to avoid. Your 
protegee, however, has on her side the right of possession, 
and it is out of respect for this right that we are acting. 
Tell her to hold herself in readiness, for I do not think 
from the replies I have received that this justification 
can arrive in time. On the 31st, at noon, if the 
period elapses without the arrival of the proofs, come to 
see me, and I will tell you what has occurred." 

At the appointed hour I was with M. Waddington. 
He informed me that orders had just been given and that 
at 3 :3o the opposition would be raised, but that, as the 
proof could, notwithstanding, arrive at any moment, he 
urged us to lose no time, 

Marsa and Alva were wild with joy. It was not only 
their fortune, but their honour, their liberty and their life 
that were at stake. Two enormous boxes had been 
prepared in advance to contain the papers. At 3 130 
Marsa, Alva and Hugot went to the bank, whither I had 
refused to accompany them, and there, without any 
obstacle being thrown in their way, the cashier delivered 
the papers. The boxes in which they were placed were 
nailed down immediately. As there had been no time 
to detach the coupons, the bank itself bought and paid 
for, cash down, certain securities amounting to 200,000 
francs, which Marsa took; and that very evening 
Hugot, accompanied by two policemen in plain clothes. 



ALVA 193 

embarked for London, where he deposited the money 
in the former repository. 

As M. Waddington had urged me to induce these 
ladies to leave Paris as soon as possible, Marsa spent the 
next three days in settling to the last centime all her 
Paris bills, and on the 5th of the month following, at 
II A. M., after having packed all their belongings, they 
left for England. 

I went with them as far as Calais, and only left the 
boat and returned to the quay when the whistle blew, 
announcing the departure of the steamer for England. 



CHAPTER X 

The Revenge of Venus 

It all happened at the beginning of the winter of 1881. 
Mr. Beckman, the Paris correspondent of the Berlin 
National Zeitung, who was then living in the Rue de 
Chateaudun, invited me to dinner at his house. An 
amiable, active, boisterous, but kindly person, Mr. 
Beckman, occupied at the time, and, in fact, maintained 
until the end of his life, a position in Paris that was not 
altogether an easy one. Before the war of 1870 he had 
enjoyed most familiar and sympathetic relations with 
Frenchmen. He wrote in Le Temps, one of the papers 
most dreaded by the Empire. The numerous contributors 
to that journal, all of whom were advancing with firm 
and sonorous step along the path of Liberalism, were all 
friends of Beckman. In its editorial rooms he had no 
enemy. All the writers of Le Temps, who were waging 
unceasingly a courteous but energetic battle against the 
Empire, used to listen deferentially to him and, verily, to 
open their hearts to him. 

Suddenly war broke out and Beckman left Paris. 

One can easily understand that it was, not possible for 
him to remain in Paris, but it was thought that he would 
withdraw into some neutral country. It appears that 
he did not do this, and when, after peace was concluded, 
he returned to France and resumed his duties as corre- 
spondent, at the same time accepting the position of 

194 



THE REVENGE OF VENUS 195 

reader of French newspapers at the German Embassy, 
French houses closed their doors to him, and he never 
succeeded in getting them open again. As, however, 
there was no necessity for me to take part in this quarrel, 
and as Beckman was a kindly and serviceable colleague, 
a mutual friend arranged for us to meet, and a short 
time afterward Beckman invited me to dinner, calling 
upon me himself in order to insist on my presence. 

On the day appointed I arrived at his house. The 
drawing-room filled rapidly with guests, almost all of 
whom were conspicuous members of the foreign colonies 
in Paris. It was past the time fixed for dinner, and 
Beckm.an had chosen for the ladies their various partners. 
I was rather surprised to find that I had evidently been 
forgotten, when my host came up to me and said : 

" We are waiting for a lady who is by no means the 
least charming of my guests. Princess Kralta, and you are 
to take her in to dinner." 

A few moments later the door opened ; there was 
a flutter of surprise, and I beheld a lady whose 
exquisite elegance, complete ease and, in a word, beauty 
attracted general attention. She smiled in the most 
charming way, and in a melodious voice apologised for 
her late arrival. Beckman led me up to her and intro- 
duced me as her partner. Soon afterward the dining- 
room doors were thrown open and we all went in to 
dinner. 

When the noise occasioned by the seating of a score of 
guests had somewhat subsided, the boisterous voice of 
our amphitryon rang out joyously : 

" Ladies and gentlemen, let every one who is not 
content with his or her neighbour put up the hand." 



196 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

Gravely the lady to the right of Beckman raised hers, 
and the burst of laughter that ensued was the prelude to 
an extremely gay and lively dinner. 

The Princess Kralta turned quickly to me. Her 
large blue eyes, which lighted up one of the most fasci- 
nating faces I have ever seen, were levelled at me 
coquettishly. She gave a little toss to the silky curls of 
her light chestnut hair as she said with a smile which 
revealed the brilliancy of her small teeth : 

"I don't know whether you are inclined to put your 
hand up, but I shall certainly do nothing of the sort, for 
I am charmed with my neighbour, and this confession 
will not make you too vain when I have told you why. 
I will not conceal from you that I am just back from 
Berlin and that the Prince" [Prince Bismarck] "on bid- 
ding me good-by said to me : ' If you go to Paris look 
up M. de Blowitz. There has been a violent discussion in 
the papers between him and me. I allowed the press to 
attack him violently. It was on the subject of a speech 
about Gortchakoff, which he attributed to me during 
the Berlin Congress. I fancy he somewhat embellished 
this speech, but it is quite true that I did deliver it sub- 
stantially as he gave it ; this is why I accused him indirectly 
of mixing up truth and fiction. However, I bear him 
no grudge. He exercises his profession as well as he can, 
and that is far above the ordinary; so that, if you have 
an opportunity, try to meet him. He knows Paris well, 
and he is an excellent guide.' " 

The Princess added: "I feel I need not hide this cir- 
cumstance from you and it will allow us to dispense with 
long preliminaries. As a proof of the unceremonious 
way in which I make friends I will tell you this : although 



THE REVENGE OF VENUS 197 

it is now some time since the Congress met, the curiosity 
of the Prince is still very keen as to how you obtained 
possession, in advance, of the treaty of Berlin. He 
cannot understand it. He considers it natural that you 
should have tried to get it, and he assured me that the 
fact rather amused him than otherwise. He nevertheless 
feels convinced that in one way or another he will event- 
ually get at the truth. His chief grievance is that you, 
by a combination that was very simple, should have 
prevented him from communicating the treaty first to the 
German press. He wished to do this as a gracious return 
for the patriotic hospitality with which that press received 
the members of the Congress in the capital of the new 
German Empire. And I — I tell you frankly, because 
I am eager to win your confidence and, perhaps later, 
your friendship — I told him that I would try to obtain 
the secret from you, since he appears to be so bent on 
knowing it. I added that it could not be one of 
those secrets which resist forever the firm will of a 
woman ready to prove herself worthy of the confidence 
she solicits." 

I laughed and said that it really was a charming way of 
making an acquaintance, when so fascinating a woman 
let me know plainly at what price her friendship could 
be won. And it can easily be imagined how, after these 
preliminaries, the dinner was continued — a dinner the 
memory of which remains still vivid in my mind, 
after twenty years have flown. 

I have not the slightest recollection as to who the other 
guests were, nor as to the conversation that went on. 
But what I do recall vividly is the harmonious voice of 
my neighbour and her anecdotes about her life at Berlin, 



198 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

which had been one long fete. She had access there to 
the most select circles. As I was obliged to leave immedi- 
ately after dinner in order to work, I avoided the smoking- 
room, and bade good-by to my radiant neighbour, 
who said to me, "I sincerely hope that you will come 
to see me, not so much on my day, but any time 
you like." 

After such a beginning, the reader will imderstand 
that our acquaintance was not to end there. 

Five or six days later I called on the Princess at her 
very attractive home not far from the Arc de Triomphe. 
She received me with a certain grace that had a touch 
of familiarity, showing that she had pleasant recollec- 
tions of her visitor. Some time afterward, as I had not 
yet met her husband, she wrote to invite me to dinner, 
adding that she should be charmed at this opportunity 
of bringing us together. 

When I entered her drawing-room on the evening of 
this dinner I was struck by the somewhat heterogeneous 
aspect of the company. Not only were there various 
nationalities represented, but there was, as well, a curious 
mingling of really great names of vanished French regimes 
and of eminent personalities of the existing one. With 
these there was a discreet infusion of Germans, for the 
dinner was a sort of birthday banquet, although I did not 
know it at the time, and the initiated had filled the house 
with a profusion of fragrant flowers, the warm colours 
of which, under the brilliant light that played over the 
elegant toilets and glistened from the precious stones, 
formed for the hostess a sumptuous and radiant frame. 

The Princess introduced me to her husband in the 
most correct way, but with a studied negligence, as if 



THE REVENGE OF VENUS 199 

the introduction as merely an incident of secondary 
importance. 

After dinner she asked me which was my wife's day, 
and begged me to say that she intended to call. During 
the entire evening she was much absorbed by her duties 
as hostess, but she said to me as I took my leave : 

"I know that you never stay late, but I hope to see 
you one of these days to resume our conversation, 
for I warn you that I still cling to my idea of wresting 
your secret from you, and I desire this all the 
more as it is in order to give pleasure to a certain 
person you know." 

When I called upon her after this dinner we conversed 
in a lighter vein, and I left the Princess without her being 
able to touch on what she called "the great problem of 
her coquetry." 

She came to see my wife, and I returned her politeness 
by inviting her and her husband to a dinner party at my 
house. I inaugurated on this occasion a fashion which 
pleased her and which shortly afterward was widely 
imitated in Parisian society. I had installed two 
orchestras, which played very softly alternately, in two 
small rooms at either end of the table, so that the con- 
versation continued with a double musical accompani- 
ment which filled the room without interfering with the 
conversation. The Princess, charmed with this idea, 
lost no time in adopting it. Before long she invited us 
to dinner, but I went alone, as my wife, who was often ill, 
was obliged to decline at the last moment. I was not 
surprised on sitting down to hear stringed instruments 
filling the air with harmony, while in the gallery at some 
little distance a Spanish orchestra played in swift sue- 



200 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

cession the characteristic dances and the Arab songs 
which the Git anas sing in the streets of Granada. 

This dinner had a character of its own and was iinlike 
any given in other Parisian houses. There were not many- 
ladies present — in fact, only a few of the most intimate 
friends of the hostess ; but, on account of my position, the 
men interested me greatly. The entire German Embassy 
was there, with its great and illustrious chief, Prince 
Hohenlohe, at the head. The Berlin Congress had con- 
siderably tempered the relations between France and 
Germany. Prince Bismarck had been most attentive 
and deferential to the representatives of France. He 
insisted at the Congress on settling the question of the 
Rumanian Jews and also that of Greece, which M. 
Waddington had so much at heart. He never lost an 
opportunity of supporting the views of the French 
Plenipotentiary, whom he consulted openly; he showed 
particular attention to Count de St. Vallier, and he 
managed that the writing of the protocols should 
be entrusted to the exceptionally capable pen of 
M. Despres, a chief secretary at the French Foreign 
Office, and third French Plenipotentiary at the Berlin 
Congress. Prince Hohenlohe himself was looked upon 
as an ambassador of peace and conciliation. All his 
endeavours and the efforts of those under him were 
directed to smoothing the relations between France and 
its former conqueror, and his capable associates, among 
whom was the young secretary. Count Von Billow, now 
Imperial Chancellor, seconded him in the most intelligent 
manner. 

On finding myself in the Princess Kralta's drawing- 
room in the midst of this company, I apprehended that 



THE REVENGE OF VENUS 201 

it was due to the intelligence and good-will of Prince 
Bismarck that such elements as these had been brought 
together in a Paris salon; and I must own that I experi- 
enced a certain amount of apprehension, for I felt that 
all here were of one mind, and I gathered that the hostess 
was acting under the individual and collective influ- 
ence of these incomparable strategists, with whom she 
delighted in surrounding herself. 

It was toward the beginning of the summer season of 
1 881. The Princess was preparing for her round of 
watering-places. My own vacation was approaching, 
and I resolved after this particular evening to keep away 
for a time from this woman whose actions I dreaded. 
I saw quite well that she had not given up her idea of 
discovering the secret she was bent on obtaining from 
me. I felt that the whole official world assembled in that 
room were taking an amused delight in seconding her 
efforts, and I, on my side, was determined not to succumb 
in the strange battle in which we were engaged. After 
that evening I met the Princess only once again before 
my departure, and during the autumn season I heard 
that she was ill and could not see any one. 

The season of 1882 was for me an extraordinarily absorb- 
ing one. Now and then in some French or foreign salon 
I met the Princess, who had recovered from her illness. 
Her chestnut hair had turned golden, and the change 
had so transformed her that she seemed to me like a 
woman with a fresh and new charm. 

The chances of renewing our acquaintance became 
more and more remote, and I had almost forgotten her 
when, toward the middle of 1883, I received a pressing 



202 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

invitation to luncheon at her new mansion in the Avenue 
du Bois de Boulogne. 

To my great surprise, and contrary to her custom, 
she had no other guest but her mother, an Oriental 
flower now somewhat faded, whose languishing eyes 
gave the keynote to her daughter's beauty. During 
luncheon the Princess, who had acquired additional 
grace and whose experience of the world, of men and 
of things seemed to have increased since I had last 
seen her, displayed such a wealth of memory, such keen 
observation and such resources in the way of anecdotal 
chatter that I was perfectly charmed, and the time 
passed only too quickly. 

"I shall write you to-morrow," she said when I left, 
" to ask you to come again, when I will tell you something 
of my most recent history. I am sure it will hold its own 
among any of the contemporary mysteries which you 
may know. " 

Her mother at these words looked up hastily. " But, 
Christine," she said, "you promised me to say nothing 
about that." 

"In the first place," retorted the Princess, somewhat 
vivaciously, "when I told you about it you made no 
such objection; and, secondly, I mean to tell it to him 
just to prove what an exception I make in his case. " 

The next morning I received a single line: "Come to 
see me day after to-morrow at four o'clock. " 

On the day and at the hour indicated I went to the 
house in the Avenue du Bois. The butler, who was wait- 
ing in the antechamber, had, I believe, received his orders. 
He ushered me into the second drawing-room,, where the 



THE REVENGE OF VENUS 203 

Princess was wont to receive her unofficial visitors. 
Although it was still long before nightfall, the shutters 
of both drawing-rooms were closed. The side-brackets 
in the large salon were lighted and shed only a vague 
radiance across the lofty and spacious room. The 
smaller salon was more brilliantly illuminated by an 
immense candelabrum standing on an elegant table 
in front of a sofa, the back of which was placed 
against a mirror that reached to the ceiling. The 
butler asked me to take a seat, and added that the 
Princess would be with me immediately. In the deep 
silence that reigned I heard that peculiar sound 
which is made by the soft step of a woman advancing 
over a heavy carpet, amidst the vague rustle of her silken 
robes. It was the Princess, and I saw her crossing the 
bright passage lighted by the brackets of the outer salon, 
then partially disappear in the semi-obscurity of the 
large room, and emerge again like a sudden vision at the 
entrance of the smaller salon. I was impressed by the 
imperiousness of all her movements and of her person, 
and I had almost forgotten her promise to tell me 
her adventures, when she invited me to take a seat near 
her on the sofa, between the high candlesticks and the 
immense mirror in which the light was reflected. 

"And now," she said, "let me tell you the story of 
which I spoke to you three days ago. It will prove 
to you that I regard you henceforth as a friend to whom 
one may confide one's most intimate thoughts without 
any risk. I have, I think, just rendered an immense 
service to the peace of the world, and have not feared to 
expose myself to great danger in order to show the man 
who asked this service of me how devoted I was to him. 



204 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

Some weeks ago I chanced to be at a watering-place 
where the great German Emperor was staying. One 
morning he sent for me. When I arrived he rose hastily, 
came toward me and, stooping until his face was almost 
on a level with mine, he said: 'I have a great service 
to ask of you, for myself, for my country and for Europe. 
For some time the letters, telegrams and reports of the 
Prince have troubled me. They betray the anxiety and 
irritation of a man in a very nervous state. He complains 
of everybody. He has grudges against Belgium, Switzer- 
land, Holland, France, England and Russia. He speaks 
bitterly of all these coimtries and appears to suspect 
them of hostility toward us. He accuses them of creat- 
ing difficulties, and, with the exception of Austria- 
Hungary and Italy, fancies that the rest of Europe is 
ready to pick a quarrell with us. I am really afraid that 
one of these fine days he may draw down upon us from 
some of these countries a reply which might place us 
in the alternative of imposing our will on them or of sub- 
mitting to theirs. In my opinion, he is suffering from 
one of those attacks of pathologic boredom to which he 
is subject, and which, when they occur, really make him 
alarming. He must have some kind of diversion as 
soon as possible. He is alone on his] great estate, 
spending his time in thinking over things, and he 
has with him a certain number of subalterns who 
always agree with him and who try to flatter him by 
approving all he says and by encouraging his exagger- 
ations. I asked you to come here, not to order you, 
but to beg you earnestly to do something which will 
restore to me the repose I need and which the Prince's 
attitude demands.' 



THE REVENGE OF VENUS 205 

" 'Sire,' I replied * I am ready to do whatever Your 
Majesty asks, and that unhesitatingly.' 

" ' I thank you,' he said, ' and I shall always be deeply 
grateful to you. . . . Return home, then, without 
saying you have seen me. Within half an hour I shall 
send for your husband and bid him go to Berlin with 
a message from me and wait there for a reply. He will 
start this afternoon by the first train. Directly afterward 
you will prepare as small a quantity of luggage as possible 
for spending a week away from home. You will have 
that luggage taken to the station, where a man who will 
have received orders will arrange for its ultimate delivery 
without being registered. This same person will meet 
you at a neighbouring station, to which you and your 
maid will be driven, and he will install you in a reserved 
compartment. You will go to the Prince, and on the 
eve of your return you will send off a telegram. You 
will then come back here, and in the evening your husband 
will return from his mission. Go, and accept my thanks.' 

"Everything occurred exactly as arranged by the 
Emperor. The Prince, whom I had informed of my 
arrival a few hours beforehand, received me rather 
impolitely. His first words were : 

" ' Was it the Emperor who sent you ?' 

" 'No,' I replied; 'I have come to see how a man like 
you, whose will dominates that of Europe, will receive 
a giddy little person who ventures to invade the lion's 
solitude.' 

" He burst out laughing, gave orders for me to be shown 
to my apartments, and when my five trunks arrived said 
to me gaily, ' I hope from your baggage that it is not 
merely a short visit you are going to pay me.' 



2o6 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

" 'Oh !' I replied, 'with all the frills and furbelows I 
require, five trunks are not enough for a long visit.' 
Thereupon, gay as a child, he insisted upon being present 
at the unpacking, and was immensely amused to see the 
dresses and things I had hastily flung into the trunks 
taken out and put in their places. 

"When I left, he conducted me to my landau and said, 
' I have been delighted to forget the affairs of the world 
for a time, and I shall postpone dealing with those affairs 
as long as possible. ' 

"I went back to my watering-place. My husband 
returned on the same evening. Our absence had aroused 
very little curiosity, and on the morrow before going 
away I paid the Emperor a farewell visit. 

"The great monarch received me with extreme joy. 
He saw that everything had calmed down; that peace 
seemed established, and that in all probability the year 
1883 would pass off without incident. He was amused 
at the thought of the stratagem he had employed and the 
success that had attended it." 

During this narrative I felt deeply moved. I sat there 
in the presence of a beautiful and intelligent woman 
who had just accomplished a most extraordinary mission, 
considering the immense power of those whose inter- 
mediary she had been. And to think that this great 
Emperor had concocted his scheme merely to calm the 
mind of a Chancellor to whom he dared not openly 
dictate his will, but whom a few years later a single 
gesture of his grandson was to reduce to utter impotence. 

While the Princess was speaking I said to myself: "I 
see what is about to take place. I have received proof of 
her devoted affection. She is only just back, as it were, 



THE REVENGE OF VENUS 207 

from her visit to the Prince, to whom she has promised 
that she will solve a mystery which has irritated him 
long enough. She has stopped at nothing in order to 
have the right to ask about my secret, and I, for my part, 
can scarcely refuse her, since she has confided to me her 
secret, the divulgence of which might be fatal to her. 
True, she made me swear not to mention it during the 
Emperor's lifetime, and not before the Prince retired 
from ofhce. But even in this, too, she showed great 
confidence, for she believes in my promise, so that, as 
in reality there is no great danger in letting the Prince 
know how I got hold of the document, and as, probably, 
he will be quite content if only his curiosity be satisfied, 
there is no serious reason for keeping my secret." I 
accordingly awaited her request quite prepared to grant it. 

She turned to me and said: "Now I know you well 
enough to be convinced that you will now accede to my 
request, which you have hitherto always refused to do. 
I need not employ stratagem, and it would be futile in 
the case of a man like you. Quite simply and without 
any circumlocution, I now beg you to prove to me that 
I can count on you as an absolute friend. Tell me how 
it occurred, and how you were able to accomplish an act 
until then unique — the publication of a treaty of a 
Congress at the very moment of its signature. 

To her great surprise I was silent ! 

For some moments, since the close of her narrative, 
one of the candles of the candelabrum on the table in 
front of the sofa had begun to flicker. I was astonished 
at this, as the doors and windows were all closed. On 
looking around I was unable to guess from what quarter 
the current of air came which caused the flame to flicker. 



2o8 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

I moved and placed myself just in front of the candela- 
brum, and I then felt, coming from the direction of the 
mirror, an unmistakable draught which fanned my cheek. 

I perceived at once that I was the victim of treachery, 
which is what I hate above all else in the world. I 
closely scrutinised the mirror and saw that a slight gap, 
which had been made only during the last few instants, 
separated the two halves of the glass, and I tmderstood 
that behind it there was a witness ready to take down 
what I might say. Rising suddenly, and in a voice 
which I vainly strove to render calm, I said, pointing 
first at the flickering flame and then at the cloven mirror, 
just when the Princess was putting out her hand to 
remove the candlestick: 

"Madame, it is needless. You see that I have tmder- 
stood. " 

She saw that distinctly and, turning away her head, she 
touched an electric button. The door opened, a servant 
appeared, and, without looking at me, she stretched 
out her hand and indicated the way to the door. 

This story, which is already rather long, had an epilogue 
and a conclusion which are not tragic, but which have a 
certain irony, I met the Princess again in society. 
Her mother and sister, on the morrow of this interview, 
intervened. They explained that she had been obliged 
to act as she did because she had attached so much 
importance to her success that it was absolutely indis- 
pensable to have an authoritative witness in order to 
prove that it was from me she obtained the information 
as to the treaty. 

When I met the Princess afterward we were no longer 



THE REVENGE OF VENUS 209 

on such friendly terms as before, but our intercourse 
was quite pleasant after the temporary rupture. 

Two years later I could not help noticing that her 
manner had changed as well as her language and sur- 
roundings. She went in for more luxury, even. It 
seemed to me disproportionate with her means. But 
as I was then a comparative stranger to her, I did not 
trouble myself about the matter. One Sunday I received 
a note from her asking me to call at six o'clock. I went, 
and she then told me, with tears of despair in her eyes, 
that she and her sister had allowed themselves to be 
induced to speculate enormously in Suez Canal stock; 
that they had sold large quantities; that these shares 
were going up, and that if this rise continued for many 
days longer they would be ruined. "And yet," she 
said, "it is a purely fictitious rise. These shares are not 
worth three-quarters of their quoted price, and it would 
be an act of justice to enlighten public opinion on the 
point. The friend who unfortunately and quite straight- 
forwardly led us into this frightful speculation has sent 
me a report which I have here. I beg you to read it. 
You will, I am sure, be struck by its conclusions and you 
would assist us by publishing the information it contains." 

I was extremely embarrassed. " I am utterly ignorant 
about such matters," I said, "but since you say this 
report contains truths which ought to be known, I will 
read it and send it to competent persons who will see 
what ought to be done with it. " 

As I had invited some people to dinner at my house, I 
took the report, put it in my overcoat pocket and returned 
home at once. I hung up my overcoat in the hall and 
dressed hastily. My guests arrived and we sat down to 



2IO MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

table. Of course, I had not had time to look at the 
report. While I was at dinner a telegram was handed 
me and I asked to be allowed to read it. It was signed 
by Baron Sartorius, a well-known banker and speculator. 
The telegram was as follows; 

" Monsieur, I am sure you will have laughed on find- 
ing, in the report handed you this afternoon, a letter 
from me to the Princess, but I know you are a man 
who understands things, and I count on your not being 
offended. " 

Immediately after dinner I went to get the report 
which was still in my overcoat pocket, and I discovered 
with it the following letter from the Baron : 

"Dear Madame la Princesse: Enclosed is the report 
I mentioned to you. Sometimes these great journalists 
are delighted to have their work done for them and to 
show that they are capable on all subjects. If you 
succeed in getting this report published it will be an 
immense affair, and I promise you that those sapphires 
and diamonds which attract you so often to the Rue de la 
Paix shall be yours." 

The next day I received the following typewritten 
and unsigned lines: 

"I have again been defeated. Really, I am most 
unskilful when I undertake a struggle with you. But 
it does not matter. I do not despair. I shall finally 
have my revenge." 



THE REVENGE OF VENUS 211 

A year later I was present at a costume ball given 
by the famous bimetallist, Henri Cernuschi, in his 
beautiful house in the Pare Llonceau. The ball was a 
magnificent one. Toward one in the morning, as I 
crossed a drawing room, I foiind myself face to face with 
the Princess. She wore the splendid costume of an 
odalisk. On her forehead, round her neck and arms and 
on her breast gleamed, with an incomparable luster, a 
superb setting of sapphires and diamonds. Behind 
her walked Baron Sartorius and Baron Hoftenhausen, 
two great financial powers. "Mon Dieu, Princess," I 
said to her; "how radiant you are, and what magnificent 
jewellery ! " 

The two Barons bowed with a very satisfied air, as if 
the compliment had been for them. The Princess, turning 
to me with a haughty smile, said in a slightly ironic voice : 

"You see now, I finish up by having my revenge." 

"Yes, madame," I replied; "I see you have, but it is 
neither the revenge of the diplomatist nor of the finan- 
cier — it is the revenge of Venus ! " 



CHAPTER XI 
A Life Struggle 

In February, 1882 (for it was during the years immedi- 
ately following the Congress of Berlin that the most 
mysterious incident in my career took place) , I was living 
in the Avenue Marceau, which was then called the Avenue 
Josephine, after the Empress, but with the advent of the 
republic a change was effected in its name and sex. 
One morning, while I was at work in my study, my servant 
announced to me that a lady, with a letter of introduction 
from the manager of the Times, wished to speak to me. 

The manager of the Times was then Mr. John MacDon- 
ald, a Scotchman, who was a rigid Protestant, and exceed- 
ingly simple in his habits. It was by no means easy for 
the numerous persons who naturally besieged a man in 
his position to gain access to him, and during the seven 
years he had been manager of the paper, as successor to 
Mr. Mobray Morice, he had only sent me one letter of 
introduction, presenting Mr. George Buckle, who was on 
the Times staff, and who became editor-in-chief. I 
realised instantly, therefore, and especially on learning 
that my visitor was a lady, that, either because of her 
own merits or because of those of her friends, she must 
be a person of importance — not a mere nobody — ^whom 
I was bound to receive with consideration. I gave 
instructions for her to be ushered into the drawing-room, 

212 



A LIFE STRUGGLE 213 

as my writing-room was somewhat encumbered, and I 
went in to see her. 

On entering the room I found her seated in a comer 
holding in her hand an envelope bearing the crest of the 
Times. She rose and handed it to me. Mr. MacDonald's 
letter was closed, for, even in these details, English and 
French customs differ. In France, letters of introduction 
are left unsealed. French politeness requires that the 
person introduced should know in advance the terms in 
which he is presented. In England, where mere for- 
malities have less importance than the real thing, a 
letter of introduction is closed, so that the writer may be 
free to say only what he wishes. 

Mr. MacDonald's letter introduced to me Madame 
Georgine Elou. He informed me that he did not give 
me her family name, as she desired to keep it secret. He 
earnestly insisted that I should do all in my power to 
satisfy the "bearer of these lines," her cause being most 
interesting and one to the success of w^hich he would 
be most happy to contribute. He added that the lady 
herself would give me verbally all the information I 
might desire, and that, in obliging her, I should be render- 
ing a service to persons dear to my manager, and defend- 
ing a cause worthy of my interv^ention. 

After reading the letter I turned toward my visitor 
and asked her by what name I should address her. She 
replied that I must call her Madame Elou, and added that 
she had something confidential to ask of me. I begged 
her, accordingly, to come into my study, and she rose to 
follow me. I was then able to examine her at my ease, 
and I was struck by the strangeness of her appearance. 
Very tall, dressed in a dark gray robe of very light material, 



214 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

with her mantle folded under her left arm, her figure 
seemed to be extremely elegant. She had the supple 
and slender grace and the refined vigour of a huntress 
of the forest or the mountain. Her well-gloved hands 
looked unmistakably aristocratic. Her long neck was 
graceful though strong, and her beautiful head well- 
poised. Her hair was dark and wavy, with a fine luster 
as the sun shone upon it through the window of the room. 
She had strong, intelligent, dark-blue eyes, which seemed 
darker than they really were, under the shadow of her 
long lashes. Her nose was faultless, and her mouth, 
though rather large, was richly coloured when she smiled, 
and displayed dazzling white but somewhat large teeth. 
Her cheeks, which were pale, but warm and full, were 
slightly elongated toward a chin the girlish and artistic 
outline of which, in spite of its strength, gave to this 
strange physiognomy an expression of infinite sweetness — 
softening and pacifying, as it were, this willful, proud, 
imperious but saddened feminine face. 

I was deeply impressed by her rare beauty, and by the 
majestic and imposing prestige of her bearing, and by an 
aristocratic refinement which gave her a sort of royal 
air, so that it was not without embarrassment that I 
besought her to tell me what had induced her to wish to 
see me. She took a seat, and, in a voice sonorous, 
tender and exceedingly flexible, but easily warming 
with passion, and even becoming now and then somewhat 
hoarse and rough, she said : 

"Ever since I have been able to think for myself and 
to reflect upon my own feelings and emotions I have 
been a prey to the strongest contradictions. I am 
twenty-three years old, and for ten years my mind and 



A LIFE STRUGGLE 215 

soul have been troubled and tormented by ceaseless 
struggle. I have abandoned myself to the most ardent 
religious faith, given myself up to untiring charity; I 
have dreamed of being a saint among saints, and have 
traversed this world, my eyes ever turned toward Heaven 
— yet never have I been able to find real peace of mind. 
I cannot tell you now how far I have gone, nor what 
means I have adopted, in order to secure that peace of 
soul for which I am ever longing and which forever 
escapes me. I have remained virtuous; I have obeyed 
my conscience, and imposed silence upon my heart. I 
have accepted all the severities that have been ordered 
by my spiritual advisers, and I have wept bitterly in my 
efforts to chase away the sorrows which are undermining 
me. I fancied I had found refuge, but I had to abandon 
it, and I have been once more plunged into the whirlpool 
of life, where I remain incapable of discovering the path 
which I ought to follow. 

"In all this world there is but one being whose will 
could calm me, the sight of whom could have an effect 
upon me, whose words could bend my will: it is the 
Pope. I want him to hear me, to listen to me. He is 
the shepherd of our souls, for I am a Catholic, and a 
Roman Catholic. He is the Will that directs, the Force 
that binds, the Reason that guides, the Voice that speaks, 
and what I ask you, for I know you can do it, is to persuade 
him to receive me, to hear me, to heal me. 

"I have long been seeking to attain this end. I have 
made inquiries and taken advice; and finally, those 
interested in me, influential persons who are able to 
realise their desires, asked Mr. MacDonald to give me 
a letter to you, a letter as urgent as possible, begging 



2i6 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

you to put me on the road to the Vatican and to 
open the doors behind which Leo XIII . listens 
patiently to those who need the infallible consolations 
which he holds in reserve for suffering souls seeking 
the path of salvation and peace. I cannot tell you any 
more at present, but I beg you to do all that you can so 
that the Holy Father may in his bountiful indulgence 
grant me the favour I implore of him. 

" I am leaving for Rome to-morrow. I do not ask you 
to give me a letter of introduction, as that might be 
confounded, in spite of you, with thousands of such 
letters addressed to the Holy Father. 

"What I do ask is that you will use your influence in 
obtaining for me, not so much the audience, but the kind 
greeting which I need. From Monday next I will go 
every day to the post-office in Rome for the letter in 
which you will announce to me either the failure or 
success of your efforts — the letter in which you will 
either tell me that I must renounce my hopes or point 
out the course I must take in order to realise them." 

Without waiting for an answer, she handed me a sheet 
of paper on which was written "Georgina Elou, Poste 
Restante, Rome." She then bowed, and with her figure 
proud and erect and her head slightly bent she began to 
move in the direction of the door. 

I stopped her almost imperiously, for I felt that in 
quitting me thus, in leaving without waiting for my 
reply, she was giving me a sort of order, 

"Do not hurry away, madame," I said, "for I see abso- 
lutely no means at present of attaining the end which 
you have in view. I do not say that if you go to Rome 
you will find no way of being received by the Pope, who 



A LIFE STRUGGLE 217 

has a prodigious faculty for displaying almost super- 
human force, but, as far as I am concerned, I cannot give 
you anything but a letter of introduction, and, however 
pressing it may be, it would no doubt meet the usual 
fate of all such letters, and be, I fear, a great disappoint- 
ment to you. I am going to Rome, though, in a few 
weeks' time. Here is the address of a friend of mine in 
the Eternal City. You might call there and ask if I am 
expected, and in case you have not already succeeded 
in your enterprise when I arrive, call to see me and I 
will consider what can be done. For the present, madame, 
I can only bid you Godspeed." 

She remained for a moment perfectly still, a prey, as 
was evident, to bitter disappointment. As usual, my 
influence had been exaggerated. She had fancied that 
a letter from me would suffice to banish all difficulties. 
She thought, also, perhaps, that it was merely my own 
will which stood in the way of the immediate realisation 
of her desire. She gazed at me with sad eyes, her nostrils 
dilating, and her imperious lips ready to express what 
she thought. But as she gazed she no doubt read on my 
face an expression of real sincerity, and even of regret, at 
my own impotence. Instantly her face softened. The 
look of anger disappeared like a mask lifted by an in- 
visible hand. Her extremely mobile features expressed 
painful regret, her eyes dropped with a touching expres- 
sion of repentance and gratitude, and with a melancholy 
smile she said: 

"I thank you very much — very much indeed. I beg 
your pardon for the umjust thought which you saw I had, 
I shall go to Rome and I will do all that I can. If I 
succeed, I shall not trouble you during your visit to the 



2i8 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

Eternal City. If I do not succeed, though, I shall take 
advantage of your offer and ask you to receive me." 

Whereupon, with queenly grace, she bowed again 
without offering her hand, and I escorted her to the hall 
door. 

A few days later I called on Monseigneur De Rende, 
who was then at the Nunciature in Paris in the Avenue 
Bosquet. My visit to Rome had been planned some- 
time before, but I did not care to go thither without 
being sure of the audience upon which I had set my 
heart. I knew that I should see King Humbert and the 
principal members of his Government. But I did not 
want this to prevent my obtaining from Leo XIII. the 
kindly reception to which I aspired. 

Monseigneur De Rende had for some time been occupied 
with this problem, displaying on my behalf a zeal quite as 
great as the sympathy which he always showed me. He 
was convinced, too, that, in preparing my visit to the 
Vatican, he would be serving the cause which he was 
defending. Monseigneur De Rende had succeeded Mon- 
seigneur Czaski, who had honoured me with his friend- 
ship, and he had learned from his predecessor that I had 
certain claims to his own good-will. Monseigneur De 
Rende, who had only held this office a very short time, 
had hitherto followed the policy of the former Nim.cio — ■ 
that is to say, instead of being a partisan of reactionary 
ideas in France, he had become the 3xponent, to the 
French Government, of Leo XIII. 's liberal policy. 

He informed me that he had every reason to believe he 
would be able to settle the question of my journey to 
Rome in a way agreeable to me, and he announced that 
in all probability he would have a favourable reply 



A LIFE STRUGGLE 219 

to give me before the end of March, so that I might 
prepare to leave Paris toward the end of the month. 
In that case, I should arrive in Rome in the early days 
of April. 

On March 7 th he sent for me and gave me a letter for 
Cardinal Jacobini, with whom he had arranged matters 
and who w^as quite prepared to receive me. 

A few days later I left Paris with a friend, who con- 
sented to be my secretary, and I reached Rome on the 
4th of April, 1882. 

I put up at a hotel in the Corso, where rooms had been 
retained for me, and the following day I was informed 
that King Humbert would receive me on the 8th of April. 
On the sixth, after having delivered Monseigneur De 
Rende's letter. Cardinal Jacobini informed me that the 
Holy Father would receive me on April loth, at noon, 
in his private oratory. On that same day, the sixth, my 
servant told me that the lady I had received some weeks 
before in Paris was in the small waiting-room leading 
out of my salon, and that she wished to see me. 

Madame Elou was accordingly shown in. She was 
dressed in black, and her face was very sad. She had 
scarcely taken a seat when she burst into tears. She 
told me that all she had done had proved in vain ; that 
the persons to whom she had appealed had asked her to 
state precisely the object of the audience which she 
desired, and that when she demurred to this they had, 
one and all, refused to do anything for her. She had 
then appealed to Sir Augustus Paget, but he had observed 
to her that he was accredited to the Quirinal and could 
in no way serve her at the Vatican. Thereupon, she 
had come to me, and she now begged me to intervene and 



2 20 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

to procure for her a favourable reply, which I alone was 
in a position to obtain. 

She had written to Cardinal Jacobini, and her 
letter, which was somewhat obscure, had remained 
unanswered. She had not ventured to write to the 
Pope himself, lest the letter should be seen by- 
Cardinal Jacobini, as she feared his relentless opposition 
to her request. 

I promised her I would do what I could, and bade her 
come to see me on the nth of April — that is to say, the 
day after my audience with the Pope. 

On the 8th of April I had an interview with King 
Humbert, which lasted the lifetime of two big cigars. 
On the loth, at noon, I found myself in the anteroom, 
waiting to be introduced into the presence of the Holy 
Father. 

Twenty minutes later I entered Leo XHI.'s private 
oratory. I had not enquired as to the ceremonial to 
follow. It was only when I perceived the Holy Father 
that I began to wonder what I ought to do. The Pope, 
however, did not leave me time to hesitate. With the 
most touching affability, as soon as I advanced toward 
him, he rose, and as he took a step forward he held out 
his hand to me. I bent over it with respectful emotion. 

Leo XIII. appeared to me most imposing. His tall, 
slight, elegant figure, clothed entirely in white, stood out 
with natural majesty against the simple and solemn 
framework of his oratory, in which a rather ornate altar 
was the most conspicuous object. 

He took an armchair which stood in front of the altar 
and made a sign to me to occupy another one near him. 
As soon as the Holy Father was seated, I sat down and 



A LIFE STRUGGLE 221 

the conversation commenced. The Pope spoke some- 
times in French, sometimes in Itahan, but always rapidly 
and in a sonorous voice. He often remained motionless, 
but at certain moments he would half rise from his chair 
in an impetuous way when he felt anything deeply — 
and all this added to the impression he made on me. 

In the robe of white woolen material, which clothed 
him like a shroud, he seemed like a voluntary cap- 
tive who had sacrificed the incomparable joy of liberty 
for the sake of defending the rights committed to 
his care. 

During the long hour I spent with him I noticed that 
his clear, melancholy eyes were presently fixed with 
painful intensity on the -City of Rome, on the high hills 
that surround it, on the Quirinal which faces the Vatican, 
and on that splendid landscape which he could only par- 
tially see through the bars that he had volimtarily 
forged to his prison. 

I regret that I may not write all that the Holy Father 
said to me, but a solemn promise which I made has sealed 
my lips forever with regard to this interview. But 
without breaking my word, I think I may say that 
toward the end of the conversation, recalling my promise 
to Elou, I submitted the ardent prayer of my protege 
to the Universal Father of Catholics. 

I had scarcely broached the subject when he inter- 
rupted me : " Yes," he said, " I know, without possessing 
definite details, the case of the person of whom you 
speak. One of my bishops of Great Britain has spoken 
of her to me. I did not expect that you would mention 
her, but since you have done so, introduce her to the 
Cardinal, and tell him from me to arrange with her the 



222 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

day when I can receive her, and to submit this arrange- 
ment for my approval." 

I then thanked His Holiness warmly, as I left him after 
receiving his final benediction. ^ 

On the following day Elou came to see me. This time 
she offered me her delicate, aristocratic hand, which was 
hot and feverish. She then threw herself at my feet. 

"If it be a refusal which you bring me, prepare my 
reason to receive the blow. If it be the realisation of 
my hopes, my blessing is yours in advance for the good 
you will do me. During the last few days I have been 
troubled with insomnia or frightful dreams. Every 
mortal enemy of the peace of human beings seems to 
have laid siege to my soul and to have inflicted upon it 
tortures for which there is no name." 

"The Pope will receive you," I said to her in a reassur- 
ing tone. 

I thought for an instant that she was going to faint. 
Then with a cry of joy which I shall never forget, she 
clasped her hands and burst into tears, exclaiming : 

"Blessed be God, My Saviour and my Angel, who 
protects me ! ' ' 

She was as one transfigured. A supernatural calm then 
took possession of her, and there was something divine 
about her beauty, from which a certain grandeur and 
solemnity emanated, changing the very atmosphere of 
the commonplace hotel drawing-room. 

Two days later I conducted her into the presence of 
Cardinal Jacobini. We went up that straight, intermi- 
nable staircase which leads to the top floor on which is 
the Cardinal's study. The Under-Secretary of State had 
received the Holy Father's orders. He listened to 



J.1 



A LIFE STRUGGLE 223 

Elou with paternal kindness, mingled with a sort of 
tender, indulgent pity. He arranged with her the day 
when she was to be received by the Pope, and was about 
to continue the conversation, when the door of his study 
was suddenly pushed open, and I beheld in the ray of 
penetrating sunlight a priest of imposing aspect dressed 
in ecclesiastical robes cut out of some heavy, silky 
material the stiff folds of which fell in long, impressive 
lines. The newcomer had dark hair and a powerful 
forehead, which sheltered deep, somber-looking eyes, 
almost hard in expression, but which seemed to light up 
his whole face. It was a sudden and unexpected vision 
of incontestable beauty. 

The Cardinal rose with eager deference, introduced 
me, and gave the name of Cardinal Ledochowski. Elou 
fell on her knees, almost in front of the Cardinal, whose 
pastoral ring she kissed timidly, and we then went out 
together. She enlarged on the impression made upon 
her by Cardinal Ledochowski, and it seemed to me that 
her sympathies and admiration were much more directed 
toward the dignified priest than toward the amiable 
Cardinal Jacobini, who had been so gracious and kind, 
and whose sympathetic but unimposing manner in no 
way corresponded to the ecclesiastical ideal of Elou's 
imagination. 

She had, however, attained her end. Her joy was 
immense, almost overwhelming. She was to be received 
by the Holy Father within a few days. She entered 
St. Peter's to pray. My own mission was accomplished 
and I bade her good-by, as I was leaving Rome for 
Naples. 

I never expected to see her again. 



224 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

A few weeks after my return to Paris, when the memory 
of Elou was beginning to fade out of my mind, I received 
the following letter from her : 

"I have had the great joy of being received by the 
Holy Father, and the mere sight of him sufficed to give 
me such peace of mind and such calm as I had not known 
for a long time. I explained to His Holiness the cause 
of my suffering, which he appeared to have some idea 
of. After what has taken place I feel obliged to 
tell you the object of my journey, the nature of my 
struggle, my hopes and my disappointments. You 
had the delicacy never to ask me what my object was 
and why I wished to go to Rome; and it is of my own 
free will that I tell you now, for you must be informed 
in order to help me. Ever since my childhood I have 
been troubled with strange contradictions. I will not 
prolong my story by telling you about my early years. 
When I arrived at the age of discretion a struggle began 
in my soul between the highest good and the greatest 
evil; and I have been obliged to combat, with the same 
ardour, the invasion of evil when I was doing what was 
right, as the empire of good when I felt drawn into sin. 
When I was twenty, in order to escape from this battle, 
I entered a convent, where the rigid discipline is a constant 
protection against human temptations. I remained there 
two years, and was about to take definite vows when 
an act of startling revolt caused the Superior to send me 
away from the convent. I was in such despair that later 
on she took me back, but once again, just as I was to 
take the vow, my spirit of insubordination induced 
another outburst, which frightened the entire Order, and 
I was once more expelled. Ever since then my soul 
has constantly been tempted. I am haunted by ideas 
of the greatest crimes, and I perceive clearly that my 
salvation or my destruction depends upon a final effort 
which will restore me to God or condemn me to hell. 



A LIFE STRUGGLE 225 

Hence my visit to the Holy Father. I came to ask 
him to insist upon the Superiors of my Order making 
a final effort to wrest my soul definitely from the haunting 
powers which torture and besiege it. The Holy Father 
had pity on me. He said that he would do what he 
could. He has done so, and I have just been informed 
that he expressed to the Superiors his ardent desire to 
see me enter the convent again. The reply was that 
I had already made two attempts and that it was utterly 
futile and impossible to allow me a third. And the Holy 
Father thereupon sent me word that his authority does 
not exceed the expression of a wish, and that he neither 
has the power, the right nor the will to command. I am 
told that there are exceptions to this rule, and that if an 
English Ambassador were to ask the Holy Father to do 
this for him as a personal favour he w^ould not be refused. 
Now, as you have shown me so much kindness, I venture 
to ask you to obtain the intercession of the British 
Ambassador in Paris, who is a friend of yours. Have 
mercy on me. Take pity on my soul, which otherwise 
is irremediably lost." 

This letter both affected me deeply and annoyed me. 
I had obtained for Elou all that was humanly possible, 
and I began to look upon her as having a soul beyond all 
cure, haunted by visions to which she dared not confess. 
Hence, after long reflection, I replied as follows : 

"Madame: I am very grateful to the Holy Father for 
the kindness he has shown you and the signal favour 
manifested in taking into account your painful situation 
and in intervening for you with your Superiors. But I 
cannot possibly join you in insisting further with him; 
and the energetic, I will even add, almost indomitable, 
persistency which you employ in striving by main force 
to open sacred doors that have. been closed to you proves 



226 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

to me that your Superiors and the Pope, better informed 
as to your character, know you more thoroughly than 
you know yourself, and that the refusal opposed to your 
perseverance is the just and logical consequence of your 
Superiors' acquaintance with you. Endeavour to master 
yourself in the world outside convent w^alls. Make 
your novitiate all alone there, proving that you deserve 
other treatment and that you have within yourself 
the energy and spirit of submission requisite for that life." 

A single line was the reply to this letter : 

" My soul is irremediably lost." 

In the summer of 1881 I paid a visit to an old friend 
who was living at Petites Dalles, on the Normandy coast. 
I was struck by the picturesqueness of this little port 
when seen from the coast of St. Martin, It is one of 
those poetical landscapes which one sees on the Riviera, 
along the Comiche, between Nice and San Remo. My 
friend, to whom I expressed my admiration of the view, 
said to me : 

"Why do you not build here a temporary refuge where 
you may find repose amid the ceaseless agitation of 
your existence ? " 

We were promenading at the time in the single street 
of the village which leads from the valley to the beach. 
I looked up at the cliff on my left and said to my friend : 

" If I can buy that little plateau there on the edge of 
the cliff, with the clump of beeches behind it, I will do 
so, and build a house there for my old days." 

My friend was delighted at the idea, and as I was 
leaving that very evening, he promised to investigate 



A LIFE STRUGGLE 227 

the matter for me. Forty-eight hours had not elapsed 
since my return to Paris when I heard from him that 
the owner accepted my price and that the bargain was 
concluded. 

In 1883 my little chalet, called by the peasants " Les 
Lampottes," because of the two small towers in the 
fagade, was finished. I had only to settle down there. 
But between the two little towers, or lampottes, there 
was a large empty space under the sharp angle of the 
roof. I ought to say that this fagade has obtained a 
great reputation among architects, and that not a season 
goes by without some of them visiting it, as they consider 
it the true Norman type. But I repeat that the angle 
between the lampottes and the summit of the roof w^as 
then empty, and this formed a gap which I was most 
anxious to see filled up. One afternoon, at Rouen, in 
the courtyard of a dealer in antiquities, I was struck 
by the artistic beauty of a statue of the Virgin with the 
Child Jesus in her arms. The statue had been carved 
out of one immense half of the bole of an oak. I took 
the measurements of it, and, as I had in my pocket the 
plan of my country house, I noticed that this statue, 
including its pedestal, would exactly fit into the empty 
space of my Norman fagade. The next day I asked the 
antiquary to sell it to me. 

"Oh !" said he, "this is a statue of which I am very 
fond, for its harmony rests the eye, but I will gladly sell 
it to you. I bought it at the demolition of a nunnery, 
which was pulled down on the plea of public utility, but 
ever since I have had it it has taken away my peace of 
mind. It always seems to me that all kinds of faint 
sounds are buzzing about it at night. Besides, I cannot 



228 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

succeed in keeping it recumbent, and when upright it 
annoys me. A dozen times I have laid it on the ground, 
but the next day I have found it upright without being 
able to explain how or why, and my wife, frightened 
by this phenomenon, begs me to get rid of it." 

"Very well, " I said with a smile ; " as I want to place 
her upright against a wall, she won't wish to change 
her position." 

I had the Virgin transported in a hay-cart from Rouen, 
and a week later the fisher peasants of Petites Dalles, 
in their playful way, had baptised my Httle chateau 
Notre Dame des Lampottes. 

In 1887, about the beginning of August, as I was 
seated on the terrace of the chalet, in the silence of the 
countryside which was only broken by the regular motion 
of the sea under the cliff, a peasant from the village 
approached and, lifting his hat, said to me : 

"There is a lady at the foot of the path who begs you 
to come down to see her, for she is here only for a 
short time and cannot come up." 

I immediately put on my hat, and, taking a stick, I 
descended to the road, where my unknown visitor was 
waiting for me. As I approached the open carriage 
drawn up under the ample shadow of a huge tree, I uttered 
a cry of surprise. It was Elou. Her face was pale and 
worn, but her eyes burned with a feverish light. She wore 
an extremely elegant travelling dress and an immense 
hat adorned with brilliant, black ostrich feathers. On 
seeing me she uttered a sort of suppressed, hoarse cry, 
but her movement was one of joy when she explained 
her delight at having found me again. I drew near and 
greeted her. 



._ jlJ 



A LIFE STRUGGLE 229 

"How is it you are here?" I asked. "And why did you 
not come up to my door ?" 

"I am here because I was told to come to you," she 
replied. "I did not go to the house because I perceived, 
from a distance, on your fagade a statue which at the 
nunnery was known as the 'rigid Virgin.' I have so 
often knelt before her, bowing my head to the very dust 
at her feet, that I do not care to enter a house over which 
she seems to watch." 

"Oh, I entreat you," I said, "come up to the chalet. 
We will take the other path, if the sight of the 'rigid 
Virgin' impresses you so deeply. You might stay several 
days here and the quiet of my home will bring you peace." 

"Never, never! She has made me suffer too much. 
She has been too inflexible. She hates me. I will not 
sleep under the same roof with her." 

I was filled with an immense pity. I felt that I was in 
the presence of a being utterly possessed by an incurable 
ill. The poor woman's reason had given way, and she 
was haunted by visions and fancies which baffled all 
logic and will-power. 

"But why did you come up here ?" I asked. 

"Because I was directed to go to Eletot with you so 
that you might be a witness of the meeting which is to 
take place there. I beseech you to get into the carriage 
with me and to take me there, for I do not know the road." 

It is an hour's drive from Les Petites Dalles to Eletot. 
The road passes by Sassetot, leaving on one side Les 
Grandes Dalles, the shady villas of which one sees right 
along the coast. The village of Saint- Pierre-en-Port is 
passed, and from thence, by a road which is to-day an 
exquisite avenue shaded by great trees, where the air is 



2 30 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

balmy and delicious, one reaches Eletot. On the way 
Elou told me of her despair on receiving my letter, because 
she knew that she would never succeed in inducing the 
Superiors to grant her a new trial. She told me of the 
nights she had tried to spend in prayer, in search of what 
she called her peace of mind, of the futility of her efforts to 
escape the visions that haunted her vigils and her sleep. 
She declared that during the night she received orders 
which she had tried to resist, but which she finally obeyed, 
for she no longer had any hope of escaping from them by 
entering a convent. She assured me that she was at 
present carrying out the latest order she had received; 
that she had just returned from Scotland, where she had 
left the last refuge in which she had thought to recover 
her peace of soul ; that she was bound to go to Eletot, and 
that she had been equally obliged to beg me to accom- 
pany her thither. 

"Do you remember," she said, "that, when we went 
to see Cardinal Jacobini, a man of imposing appearance 
entered. It was Ledochowski, and it is he who has 
done me the greatest harm which I have ever experienced 
in all my life. He appeared to me first as an archangel 
who would heal all my wounds. I have seen him since 
and told him all my tortures, entreating him to be my 
confessor. My admiration for him appeared to irritate 
him; he refused to become my spiritual adviser, and one 
day when I insisted that he should protect me against 
myself, he rose suddenly, extending his hand, and showed 
me the door, exclaiming : 

" 'Away, away, cursed woman, for when you cross my 
threshold you fill my soul with the terror of everlasting 
punishment ! ' 



A LIFE STRUGGLE 231 

"I quitted him, and since then I have felt that I was 
abandoned by Heaven and destined to irremediable 
destruction." 

We reached Eletot, a little village not far from the 
sea, separated from the waters of the channel by a great 
plain behind the little Roman church of the style so often 
seen along the coast. We left the carriage at the entrance 
of the village. I had very rarely been there and had 
never stopped in the place, but Elou seemed to know it 
perfectly well. She took the path behind the church 
which leads to the plain by the sea. She crossed the 
corn and wheat -fields at the edge of the plain. For a 
few moments she gazed at the steeple of St. Pierre-en- 
Port which emerged on the right from the verdure of the 
hills. She shook her head and, turning, while she gazed 
upon the sea, with her arms stretched out, exclaimed : 

"Yes, I know where I am — this is the spot. It is here 
I am to find him of whom I am in search and who is in 
search of me. Ah, yes, it is here ; I am going to him !" 

"Thank you, thank you," she added. "You have 
guided me to him, and it means rest ! " 

Then with her arms outstretched and her figure magni- 
fied, as it were, by a superhuman effort, she dashed 
forward across the plain. At the edge of the steep cliff, 
high over the sea, the plain had broken off abruptly, and 
thus it is that this marvellous expanse of water has 
never been utilised, and that the point, where this plain 
and the sea meet, appears to be haunted by a spirit 
of solitude and aridity. 

Elou had rushed with extraordinary speed toward the 
east side of the plain, where stakes and wire fencing have 
been fixed to prevent people from falling into the sea, for 



232 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

when the tide rises the waters bathe the base of the cliff. 
Before I had recovered from my surprise Elou was some 
six hundred feet ahead of me. So rapidly had she run 
along that the breeze had detached one after another 
from her hat-brim the great, black ostrich feathers, 
and as she bounded on with outstretched arms her 
skirts floated about her like wings, while the feathers 
of her hat, borne up by the wind, emphasised strangely 
the madness of her flight. I tried to overtake her, 
but it was all in vain. I had not gained half the 
distance when I saw that she had reached the edge 
of the cliff. For a moment she stopped, looked 
all about her, uttered a terrible cry of anger and 
despair, and as quick as a flash sprang over the 
wire paling which protects the passers-by from falling 
into the sea. 

Breathless I reached the spot and gazed all around. 
I passed beyond the circle protected by the wire hedge 
and watched the waves that rose and fell gently under 
my feet. I could see nothing whatever of Elou. 
The surface of the sea wore its habitual aspect. Merely 
the ostrich feathers, borne up on the wind, flitted across 
the great expanse as if drawn outward and downward 
to the sea. Two men strolling along by the wire fence 
came up to me. 

"You are looking for something?" they asked. 

"Yes," I replied, "It seems to me that on the edge 
of the cliff, outside the wire fence, I saw a person with 
outstretched arms. Did you notice anything ?" 

The two men looked at each other. 

"We have seen nothing," they replied, "yet we have 
been near all the time." 




LES LAMPOTTES 
M. de Blowitz's country house in Normandy 



A LIFE STRUGGLE 233 

We all three gazed at the sea. The two men went 
their way ; I lingered on for a long time on the edge of the 
cliff. I called out, but no voice answered mine, and my 
search was all in vain. And never since, in spite of my 
investigations and of my despairing researches, never 
since, either dead or alive, have I been able to discover 
the slightest trace that was capable of explaining to me 
either the enigma of her life or the mystery of her death. 



CHAPTER XII 
Why France Did Not Go to Egypt 

It is a strange fact, but it has often been obsen^ed 
that the most serious events owe their origin to very- 
small causes. But it is far more strange, and the story, 
I believe, has never yet been told, that the Egyptian 
question, which for twenty years has been affecting the 
pleasant relations between England and France, which 
at a certain moment brought them within a hair's- 
breadth of war, and which for a long time yet will loom 
in the international horizon like some evil phantom of 
discord, was occasioned by an accident of the smallest 
importance. If France did not go with England to 
Egypt, it was merely on account of a certain portfolio. 
The following is the history of the affair : 

The 7th of November, 1881, the day on which the 
Gambetta Cabinet was formed in Paris, fell on a Monday. 
On Saturday, November 12th, I went to see M. de 
Freycinet to ask him whether there was any truth in the 
report that he had refused to enter into M. Gambetta's 
combination and become a member of his Cabinet. 

"People say," I told him, "that you have refused to 
enter into this combination because you wished to lessen 
the importance of it in the eyes of the public, and because 
your refusal to associate yourself with it would, you 
thought, prevent it from becoming the 'Great Ministry,' 

234 



WHY FRANCE DID NOT GO TO EGYPT 235 

as every one was prepared beforehand to style the 
Gambetta Cabinet." 

"That is absolutely inexact," replied M. de Freycinet. 
" I did not refuse to enter the combination. It is just 
the reverse, for I accepted a long time ago the offer 
M. Gambetta made me. What I did refuse was to accept 
the portfolio which M. Gambetta has just tendered me 
under very singular circumstances, which I will explain 
to you. There had been an understanding for a long 
time past between M. Gambetta and myself that, when 
he should be called upon to form a Cabinet, and there 
seemed every likelihood of that coming to pass, I should, 
in that Cabinet, be appointed Minister of War. I had 
said to him : ' I want that appointment because it is, I 
may say, absolutely necessary to me. My adversaries 
have so often accused me of having by my presumption 
and incompetence organised the defeat in the second 
part of the war of 1870, that, in defense of my honour 
and of my patriotism, it is indispensable that I should be 
able to prove that I am capable of directing the War 
Office. I must, therefore, ask you, when forming your 
Cabinet, to give me this appointment, as the manner 
in which I fill it will afford me an opportunity of 
refuting all the slanderous accusations of which I have 
been the victim, and of rehabilitating myself in the 
eyes of the world.' 

"M. Gambetta understood my persistency, approved 
of my reasons, and promised to satisfy my demands on 
this point. 

" It was just then that I heard of the mission entrusted 
to M. Gambetta to form his Ministry, and I held myself 
in readiness to join it as Minister of War. But yesterday 



236 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

evening, Friday, at six o'clock, M. Gambetta entered 
my house like a whiriwind. He explained to me that 
he was in a desperate hurry ; that he was on his roimd to 
see all his collaborators, and had come to tell me that I 
should join his Cabinet as — Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
Without giving me time to answer, without even telling 
me the names of my future colleagues in the Ministry, 
he left me and continued his visits. 

"As soon as he had gone I decided not to accept the 
change of ofhce which he had proposed. I understood 
that at the Foreign Affairs Ministry I should be merely 
his clerk, and that he himself would be the real Minister. 
I knew very well that I should simply have to do as he 
dictated, that if things went satisfactorily he would have 
all the credit, and that I should be blamed for all the 
mistakes. 

" Besides, it had been agreed that I should take the 
War portfolio. He knew why I wanted it. He under- 
stood my reasons and had approved of them, so in view 
of all this I wrote to him this morning, simply telling him 
that I regretted not being able to join his combination. 
This is all I have to say on the subject." 

I quite understood the reasons which M. de Freycinet 
gave me, and as it was Saturday and I had no article to 
send to my paper that day, I decided to hold over what 
I had been told until the following day, intending then 
to see how much it would be wise to remember. 

Later on the same day I went to a grand soiree 
given by Madame Adam at her apartments in the 
Boulevard Poissonniere. There the main topic of con- 
versation was the formation of the Gambetta Cabinet. 

In the course of the evening I came across one of 



WHY FRANCE DID NOT GO TO EGYPT 237 

Gambetta's intimate friends. He told me that he had 
seen the future Prime Minister that afternoon, and that 
he was very much annoyed with M. de Freycinet. He 
complained bitterly of the latter' s defection, and it was 
evident that he considered the refusal as nothing more 
nor less than treachery. 

I explained to my interlocutor the reasons M. de 
Freycinet had given me a few hours previous. I told 
him that those reasons perfectly justified the attitude of 
M. de Freycinet in my eyes, that they would justify him 
in the opinion of the public, and that I was convinced 
every one would blame M. Gambetta. 

His friend, quite annoyed, assured me that he was 
absolutely convinced M. Gambetta had no idea of the 
motives which had dictated M. de Freycinet's conduct, 
and when I said that it would be a great pity if these two 
men were to be hostile to each other, and that at all 
costs this hostility should be prevented from breaking 
out, he replied that he was going to see M. Gambetta 
that very evening, that he would report to him what I 
had said, and the next morning, at eleven, he would 
come and tell me what M. Gambetta had replied and 
what could be done to prevent the rupture which seemed 
to both of us so undesirable. But at two o'clock in the 
morning there was a knock at my door and a letter was 
brought to me to the following effect : 

"I have not been able to see Gambetta himself, but I 
learn on good authority that he is to go at nine this 
morning, Sunday, to see M. Grevy at the Elysee to com- 
municate the result of his negotiations, and he will 
probably inform the President that, on account of 
M. de Freycinet's refusal, he himself will take over the 



2 38 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

portfolio of Foreign Affairs. Therefore, after nine 
o'clock it would be too late to make any communication 
to M. Gambetta, so that if M. de Freycinet would like to 
have an explanation with him which might modify his 
plans it must take place before 8.30." 



I rose at five o'clock, took a cab opposite my house, 
and drove to M. de Freycinet's. It was about six when 
I arrived there. M. de Freycinet was in bed. A candle 
was burning on a little table by his side and he was 
working by that light. He listened to me attentively, 
thanked me very much, and told me that at 7.30 he 
would be at M. Gambetta's. He was as good as his 
word. M. Gambetta, who was then living in the Rue 
St. Didier, was at his window smoking a cigar when he 
saw M. de Freycinet arrive. 

At the outset the interview was far from agreeable. 
M. Gambetta reproached M. de Freycinet with not 
wishing to compromise himself in the former's Cabinet, 
so that he might keep free in order to succeed him. 
M. de Freycinet protested energetically and declared 
positively that no matter what might happen he would 
never succeed him, M. Gambetta was appeased, and 
when M. de Freycinet had explained the cause of his 
refusal, M. Gambetta, who was broad-minded and frank, 
admitted that his conduct had not been entirely blameless, 
so that the interview, which had commenced so unfavour- 
ably, ended in the most cordial manner. The next day, 
November 14th, the Journal Officiel contained the 
announcement of the formation of Gambetta's Cabinet, 
and the Ministry settled down to work without delay. 
From the time he came into power, Gambetta foimd 



WHY FRANCE DID NOT GO TO EGYPT 239 

himself exposed to an underhand opposition, to unforeseen 
resistance, to inconceivable maneuvers and to impla- 
cable hostility. Among his secret adversaries, none was 
more zealous than M. de Freycinet, who, in spite of his 
explanation with the new Premier, had not forgiven 
him for not appointing him Minister of War. 

The consequence was that a few weeks later the 
Gambetta Cabinet was defeated on the question of the 
scrutin de liste at elections. 

This scrutin de liste had been haunting M. Gambetta 
for ten years. 

In July, 1 87 1, when I paid M. Thiers my first visit in 
the name of the Times, he said to me, "Gambetta and 
Faidherbe have conceived the idea of being voted for 
by universal suffrage, as they have their names at the 
top of the scrutin de listed This was my first despatch 
to the Times; it was reproduced as a special telegram, 
and with it I inaugurated my entrance on the staff of 
that paper. 

On the 26th of January, 1882, whilst M. Gambetta was 
delivering one of his finest speeches in defense of the 
scrutin de liste, I was walking in the Salle des Pas Perdus 
with M. Joseph Reinach. The great speaker was more 
eloquent than ever, and we could hear plainly the applause 
that greeted his arguments. He was pleading the cause 
of the scrutin de liste, and as, in spite of the applause, I 
expressed my fear lest M. Gambetta 's Cabinet should 
be overthrown on account of this speech, M. Joseph 
Reinach said, "They cannot overthrow him; there is 
nobody to succeed him." 

"W^hat about M. de Freycinet?" I asked. 

"M. de Freycinet," replied M. Joseph Reinach, 



240 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

promptly, " has made a formal promise not to suc- 
ceed M. Gambetta." Nevertheless, an hour later M. 
Gambetta was defeated, and M. de Freycinet, 
who was immediately asked to call at the Ely see, 
agreed, in spite of his promise, to succeed M. 
Gambetta. 

"I shall never forget it," declared Gambetta when 
he was told the name of the Prime Minister who was to 
take his place. 

And for six months Gambetta, who considered 
M. de Freycinet's acceptance as an act of treachery, 
made desperate onslaughts on his Cabinet on every 
question. 

Now, on the 29th of July, 1882, a very serious matter 
was discussed ; namely, whether France should or should 
not go with England to Egypt. M. de Freycinet had 
adopted an uncertain attitude, but on the whole seemed 
inclined to cooperate with England. M. Gambetta 
then rose and opposed M. de Freycinet's projects with an 
eloquence that was both aggressive and triumphant, 
and, with the assistance of M. Clemenceau, overthrew the 
Cabinet that very evening. M. Gambetta and his party 
were avenged. 

A year later, when in Rome, I was talking to Cardinal 
Jacobini. 

"Do explain to me," he said, suddenly, "why France 
refused to accompany England to Egypt." 

I told the Cardinal the story of the portfolio which 
I have just related here, and I proved to him that if 
M. de Freycinet had been offered the post of Minister 
of War, which he greatly desired and had every reason 
to expect, instead of that of Minister of Foreign Affairs, 






WHY FRANCE DID NOT GO TO EGYPT 241 

France would, at this moment, be with England in 
Egypt. 

A smile such as one sees only on the lips of a Roman 
Cardinal hovered over his mouth, and he murmured in 
Italian, " Small causes, great effects ! " 



CHAPTER XIII 

My Interview with the Sultan 

When I left Paris, in 1883, for Constantinople, on the 
inauguration train of the Orient Express, Essad-Pasha, 
the Turkish Ambassador in Paris, gave me two letters 
of introduction, one for Said-Pasha, the Grand Vizier, 
the other for Munir-Bey, the Master of Ceremonies. 

I had not hidden from Essad-Pasha my desire to avail 
myself of this visit to Constantinople for approaching 
the Sultan, and although the letters of introduction he 
gave me were, according to diplomatic custom, sealed, 
I am sure they mentioned my wish and suggested that 
I should be helped to carry it out. 

On arriving at Constantinople, a good friend of mine 
who lives in that city called upon me. He knew every 
one and everything there, and I told him that I had come 
with some friends who were leaving in four days, that 
I wanted first to see Constantinople with them, and that 
I intended waiting until they had gone before using my 
letters of introduction, as I was staying a week longer 
than they were. My friend advised me to deliver the 
letters at once, and he imdertook to see that they reached 
their destination. 

Two days later, on Thursday, we were told that it was 
the eve of the Courbam-Bairam, and that the fetes would 
commence on Friday and last until Monday evening. 

This was a great disappointment to me. I understood 

242 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 243 

that I should not be able to meet any members of the 
official world until after the fetes, on the following 
Tuesday. As I was to leave on the Saturday following, 
this left me only four days to settle the complicated 
question of an audience with the Sultan. During the 
three days I had been in Constantinople I had seen a 
great many people and had talked about a great many 
things, and I had begun to understand that this was no 
easy matter. The Sultan had never granted a private 
audience to any one in my position, and the persons 
on whom I was relying for asking the Sultan to receive 
me would more likely prevent my obtaining an interview 
than otherwise. 

Missak-Effendi, the First Secretary of the Ottoman 
Embassy in Paris, a delightful man, a clever diplomatist, 
always pleasant and amiable, as well as a good linguist 
and an excellent functionary, had travelled with us. 
He told me that I ought not to leave Constantinople 
without seeing the Sultan, and he had mentioned the 
matter to Said-Pasha and to Munir-Bey. With his 
usual courtesy, he had told Munir-Bey not to forget to 
remind the Sultan who I was and in what capacity I was 
there, so that he might weigh his words and not lose 
sight of the fact that what he said to me would not escape 
publicity. To any one who knows Constantinople and 
the palace it will be very evident that after this recom- 
mendation, of which I knew nothing until my depart- 
ure, there was no chance whatever of attaining the 
end I had in view through official influence. Neither 
Munir-Bey, Said-Pasha, nor any of those whose responsi- 
bility is publicly acknowledged, would have cared to 
risk the consequences of an audience accorded to me by 



244 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

the Sultan. Abdul-Hamid is too attentive and too 
enlightened not to take into account the press, and 
particularly the independent press of Europe, and not 
to keep himself well posted about the various correspond- 
ences published in Europe. Now, as it happened, some 
of the correspondents of certain newspapers in Constanti- 
nople, by their free and independent criticism of Turkey 
and of the Ministers, and the deeds of the Sultan himself, 
had roused the susceptibilities of His Majesty, who still 
had a lively remembrance of some of those articles. 

Who would be responsible if, in my turn, I should add 
to the Sultan's bitter impressions, and who could ask these 
high officials, whom a glance from their lord and master 
could annihilate, to accept the consequences of such an 
interview and to bear the responsibility of having brought 
it about and of having asked the Sovereign to grant it ? 

As my brief sojoiun furnished timorous officials with 
a justification of their fears, it was quite probable and 
almost certain that I should not see the Chief of Believers 
before leaving his capital. A fresh circumstance added 
to the complication of the question. 

The Friday after the Bairam I went to Therapia to 
call on Lord Duiferin. 

When I told him that I had left two letters of intro- 
duction from Essad-Pasha, the English diplomatist 
was of my opinion that the time was too limited for me 
to be able to count on an audience. 

He assured me that Mr. Forster had obtained an 
audience, but that it had been postponed twice, and that, 
as he could not remain any longer, he had left without 
waiting for the day appointed the third time. 

I thought, naturally, that if so important a personage 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 245 

as Mr. Forster had been kept waiting like this I might as 
well give up all idea of succeeding. I asked Lord Dufferin, 
nevertheless, if he would not be kind enough to second me 
in my attempt. With his usual perspicacity and knowl- 
edge of all that concerns Oriental men and things, he 
saw immediately that we should have to avoid taking 
any direct, official step in the matter, as this would only 
create a fresh obstacle. He told me that he would write a 
private letter to Munir-Bey, merely informing him that 
I was among the passengers of the Orient Express, and 
suggesting that perhaps His Majesty might like to be 
informed of the fact. He did this that same day. I 
happened to know, too, that Munir-Bey was always 
pleased to receive information of this kind through an 
Ambassador, because in this way he was obliged to 
convey it to his chief without incurring the responsi- 
bility of having taken the initiative. The Sultan was, 
therefore, apprised on Saturday that I was in Constanti- 
nople, and when communicating to him the note from 
Lord Dufferin, those who presented it added that, having 
now discharged their duty, they had only to await the 
decision of the Sovereign. Under these conditions 
during the two next days a profound silence was main- 
tained with regard to me. The amusing side of the affair 
was that two parties were formed round the Sultan on 
my account, in spite of the unimportance of my per- 
sonality. Some had proceeded officially, almost compul- 
sorily, and when once their official request had been made 
they had remained quiet, rather glad on the whole of the 
silence which was maintained with regard to me. Others, 
anxious, on the contrary, that I should see the Sultan, 
and in their enthusiasm for him convinced that this 



246 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

interview could only leave an excellent impression on 
my mind, were most impatient as the hours slipped by 
and the hour of my departure approached. They could 
do nothing to break this silence themselves, nor to get 
it broken by others, prevented as they were by the note 
sent by an Ambassador and by the official intervention 
of those whose functions authorised them to intervene. 
Things went on in this way until Tuesday evening. 

In three days' time I was to leave Constantinople. 

On Tuesday evening I received from Said-Pasha the 
following letter : 

''Sir: I had the pleasure of receiving the letter from 
His Excellency, Essad-Pasha, which you were kind 
enough to forward to me, and also the letter in which 
you ask for an interview. I regret that on account of 
my numerous occupations I could not reply earlier. I 
will let you know the day and hour when I shall be able 
to see you. Accept the assurance of my perfect con- 
sideration. SaYd." 

As I was to leave on Saturday, this letter was equiva- 
lent to a refusal, and I heard the very next day that on 
account of Abdul-Hamid's silence about the communi- 
cation made by Lord Dufferin in his note, Said-Pasha 
deemed it prudent not to receive me, which fact was very 
evident from his letter. 

Thereupon, I hastened the preparations for my depar- 
ture, and that very evening went to keep an appointment 
which had been arranged for me with the Sheik Abul- 
Huda el-Rifai, the Grand Caziasker of Anatolia, in order 
to complete, at any rate, my interviews with the men 
of note of the capital. 

My conversation with this eminent man lasted tmtil 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 247 

very late into the night, and I have heard since that the 
next morning he wrote to inform the Sultan about it. 

The following day one of my friends came to tell me 
that he had just received the visit of a person who fre- 
quented the palace, who had told him that every one 
there wanted me to see the Sultan, but that no one dared 
introduce the subject for fear an official demand for an 
audience should exist, as that would prevent any other 
steps being taken. 

I understood, then, the tact and finesse with which 
Lord Dufferin had acted, and I was able to declare that 
no official demand for an audience existed. 

My friend appeared to be delighted. 

That same day I had a visit from Waiss-Bey, the 
Turkish Consul-General in Venice, a very distinguished 
Orientalist, thoroughly devoted to the Sultan and 
connected with the palace. He is an active, intelligent 
man, very anxious to show up Turkey, of which he 
is an ardent defender, in its best light. 

He appeared to know what was going on. We talked 
for a long time, and I heard later on that, on leaving 
me, he wrote a long letter which the Sultan would see, 
in which he pleaded warmly in favour of the audience. 
All these movements, all these applications, and one 
might even say all these struggles, were going on without 
my suspecting them in the least. As my visit was to 
come to an end in a couple of days, I considered my 
cause lost. In spite of this, the next day, Thursday, I 
heard that Philippe-Effendi, the editor of the Vakhit, 
the special journal of the Sultan, a man who is very 
devoted to His Majesty and who is broad-minded and a 
protege of Osman-Bey, the First Chamberlain, had said 



248 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

that I ought not to be allowed to leave without seeing 
the Sovereign. I knew, too, that Reschid-Bey, the 
Sultan's Chief Secretary, a very highly educated young 
man, in whom his master has every confidence and who 
looks at things in an unprejudiced way, was among 
those who were inclined toward the audience. Mr. 
Guaracino, too, an Englishman, who had been in Constan- 
tinople almost all his life, and who used to be a member 
of the English Consulate, a very active and intelligent 
man, who was liked by the ]\iussulmans and a great 
favourite everywhere, was particularly interested in the 
success of my enterprise. As I have said, all this agitation 
was going on around me, and the greatest precautions 
were taken so that I should not have any idea of it ; yet 
I understood that all these people had not abandoned 
the cause and had not given up all hope of conquering 
the resistance opposed to them. I felt that I was breath- 
ing in an atmosphere which, even for Constantinople, 
was full of exceptional mystery. The Turks, who usually 
converse in a low voice, spoke still lower in my presence, 
and uttered Turkish monosyllables, almost in a whisper, 
as they glanced at me. I went about like an actor in 
a conspiracy on the stage, knowing that whatever 
happened, whether failure or success, the result would 
not be fatal to any one. 

On Thursday, in the afternoon, Waiss-Bey came to 
tell me that it would be well for me to go the next day, 
Friday, to the Selamlik, which would take place at the 
Medidjeh Mosque near Dolma-Bagchi. 

"But," I said, "I went to the Bairam last Friday and 
I saw the ceremony and the Sultan. There will be 
nothing fresh to see to-morrow." 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 249 

"No matter — it's better to go; there's no knowing. 
It sometimes happens that the Sultan notices foreigners 
and asks to see them. Besides, you will see him again, 
and the ceremony is interesting." 

"Very well, I'll go," I said. "At what time must I 
be there?" 

"At midday." 

He had just gone away when I received a message to 
the effect that Khair-eddin-Pasha would receive me the 
following day at Nichanne-Tache, at half -past nine in 
the morning. Soon after, one of my friends called 
to tell me that Said-Pasha would see me at Nichanne- 
Tache at six o'clock, Turkish time. 

" What time will that be ?" I asked. 

My friend began to calculate and then replied, " Half- 
past eleven." 

I reflected that if I went at half -past nine to see 
Khaireddin, and at half -past eleven to Said's, I should 
never be at the Selamlik at noon. But, as Said-Pasha 
had given me Turkish time, it was quite allowable for 
me to make a mistake of an hour in my calculations, 
and so amve at half -past ten to see him. If he received 
me then, I should have time to go to the Selamlik, 
and if he did not receive me, I could apologise and leave 
a few lines to him, explaining that it was impossible for 
me to wait. 

In the evening I went to a dinner given in my honour 
at the Club. I asked Mr. Guaracino whether a seat at 
table had been purposely left vacant, and he told me 
that Philippe-Effendi was to have been there, but, he 
added, lowering his voice, "he must have gone to the 
palace to see whether there is anything fresh." I 



2 so MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

finished, the evening at the house of Mr. Smythe, a very- 
pleasant sort of man, a director of the Ottoman Bank. 
I was able to admire at his house some charming 
specimens of the English colony, and I then returned at 
rather a late hour to the Hotel d'Angleterre. Early 
next morning, Weiss-Bey and Mr. Guaracino came to 
tell me that they would wait for me between half -past 
eleven and twelve, on the Dolma-Bagchi road, to take 
me to the guard-house which faces the Medidjeh Mosque, 
where I could see the Sultan quite close. I went to 
Khair-eddin's at half -past nine, and left him at half -past 
ten, to go to Said-Pasha's, who lives just opposite. 

I had done well to go an hour earlier, for Said-Pasha 
received me at once. 

When I took leave of him, although the hands of my 
watch pointed to a quarter to twelve, I feared that I 
should miss the Selamlik. 

I had scarcely departed from the house when I met 
Mr. Guaracino, who had brought a horse and had 
come at full speed to tell me that it was late. We 
found Waiss-Bey stamping about impatiently, and we 
went along at full gallop toward Dolma-Bagchi, when 
we were told that the Selamlik was to take place at 
Bechik-Tache, and not at the Medidjeh Mosque. There, 
every one was waiting in a state of hesitation, for it 
was expected that the ceremony would have taken place 
at the Medidjeh Mosque, and, although the troops were 
drawn up, the officers present, and instructions had been 
given to the softas, yet at the last moment a counter- 
order might arrive, and the Sultan, with that persistent 
care not to appear in a locality that has been indicated 
beforehand, might change the meeting-place. In cases 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 251 

of this kind nothing can give an idea of the rapidity 
with which this official change of quarters is effected. 
The troops, the officials of the procession, the horses 
and caniages, and the assembled crowd, disappear in the 
twinkling of an eye and go quickly to the mosque indicated 
without any surprise or displeasure, as though it were 
the most natural thing; the guard-house looks just as 
usual, and five minutes later a stranger passing by would 
never imagine that, only a few minutes before, a crowd 
had been waiting there, that soldiers had been drawn 
up in line, that rows of carriages with the horses tm- 
harnessed had been on the spot amidst all the ceremonials 
of an absolute government whose chief deigns to be 
saluted once a week. But when we saw that sand was 
being thrown on the ground where the Sultan was to 
pass, we understood that it was certainly here that the 
ceremony would take place. The Turkish finances are 
not in a state which allows of a waste of sand. 

A few minutes later an aide-de-camp on horseback 
galloped up, announcing that His Majesty was about to 
leave the palace and come to the Mosque of Bechik- 
Tache. 

I was then advised to mount on the highest of the 
steps leading to the guard-house, so that I might be 
above the crowd and see the Sultan. 

My companions, however, looked greatly distressed. 
At Bechik-Tache the mosque is some distance from the 
guard-house. It is beyond the little triangular square, 
just opposite the door through which the Sultan enters. 
I was in the midst of all the foreigners who had rushed 
to see the ceremony, and if I should manage to see the 
Sultan, how could I have the slightest chance of being seen 



2 52 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

by him ! If just then I had suggested to my two compan- 
ions that we should go away, they would have been 
delighted, so convinced were they that we were merely 
wasting our time and that I should simply witness the 
failure of their plans. As these thoughts were crossing 
my mind, a tall, strongly built man, dressed in a grey 
suit of European cut, holding a soft hat in his hand, 
crossed the square which the troops were guarding. 
He had a full face and dark complexion and a black, 
stiff mustache. He was quite out of breath as he 
approached us, and murmuring a few words to the 
officer in command of the guard-house, he then made 
a sign to us to follow him. 

"It's Philippe-Effendi," said Mr, Guaracino; "he has 
an irade for us to have good places." 

We went through the guard-house, turned down a 
small corridor to the right, and came into a drawing- 
room, which was very clean, and furnished with arm- 
chairs and a wide sofa occupying the whole length of 
the two windows which looked on to the square and 
the mosque. Evidently this word, irade, was of the 
same derivation as "irradiation." From the moment it 
had been pronounced in my favour I felt that luminous 
efHuvia were irradiating around me. As we entered, the 
officers, with their gold lace, who were seated, rose, 
looked at me with respectful curiosity, and invited me 
to take a seat on the sofa. As soon as I was seated, a 
soldier brought me coffee and another one cigarettes. I 
had become the Sultan's guest. 

Suddenly a great noise was heard in the street. The 
Sultan was approaching. Philippe-Effendi said a few 
words to Mr. Guaracino, who opened the lower part of 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 253 

one of the windows, told me to get up on the sofa, and 
then invited me to sit down on the white marble of 
the window. 

Every one drew back a little, and at the same moment, 
in obedience to an order given outside, a clear space 
was made in front of the window on which I was seated. 

I was thus completely isolated both from the outside 
and the interior against the somewhat dark backgroimd 
of the room, with the stin full on me, showing me up in 
the foreground of the picture. I was seated sideways, 
my legs hanging over the sofa, my body leaning forward 
and my head out of the window. 

I understood that I was posing for the Sultan, 

"It is to be hoped," I said, in real terror, to Mr. 
Guaracino, "that there is no photographer here with his 
apparatus just facing us. My pose would certainly 
not be to my advantage." 

The cheering of the troops could be heard as the 
Sultan appeared in a close carriage with the windows 
drawn up. I did not see him very well. I knew he 
would look toward me — he could scarcely do otherwise, 
as I had been placed in such a conspicuous position, 
and I bowed with all the respect due to the Sovereign 
of the country. The carriage stopped, Abdul-Hamid 
entered the mosque, after turning roimd toward the 
crowd, and the muezzin having appeared on the gallery, 
we understood that prayers had commenced within. 

I at once left my uncomfortable seat and entered the 
room again, but I had been inside only a few minutes 
when Philippe-Effendi suddenly rushed out 

" What's the matter ?" I asked Mr. Guaracino. 



2 54 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

"Another trade," he answered. 

"Where?" 

"There, the gentleman wearing a fez, who is just 
crossing the road." 

He was right, for the trade, in the red fez, was talking 
to Philippe-Effendi. The latter soon returned and said: 

"An order for us to be ready to go up to Yildiz-Kiosque 
after the Selamlik." 

Things were advancing very slowly, but still they were 
advancing. My pose at the window had not caused the 
Sultan to change his plans. 

At this moment Mavroyeni-Pasha, a clever and witty 
Greek, who was private physician to the Padishah, 
came in. 

We talked together for a few minutes. 

"I am sorry you have not seen the Sultan," he said; 
"you would have acquired for yourself proof of the 
stupid untruths that are told about him. You would 
have seen for yourself how sotmd his mind is, how just 
he is, and how healthy, too. People say that he has all 
kinds of diseases, that he has scrofula, and is subject to 
fainting fits. It is infamous. I have never known him 
ill, and I am the most expensive luxury that he allows 
himself." 

On looking round I noticed that Philippe-Effendi had 
disappeared. 

"Where has he gone?" I asked Waiss-Bey. 

" There's another trade on your account." 

Philippe-Effendi came back again. 

"Strict orders have been issued to take you to Yildiz- 
Kiosque. When there, a chamberlain will tell us what 
is to be done," he said. 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 255 

My companions were radiant. Evidently one of those 
mysterious battles had been waged round the Sultan 
with regard to me — one of those battles the secret of 
which is guarded by the walls of the palace, and about 
which conquerors and conquered are equally silent. I 
was gradually penetrating it, and if I am able to tell all 
the details now, it is because, in the first place, I was 
able to observe everything for myself, and also because 
victory makes the conquerors more readily inclined to 
be communicative. Very soon the fourth and last 
irade arrived, and I knew from the faces of my friends 
that victory was nearly certain. 

"An order to go to the Marshals' room and to wait 
there." 

We were now in the stronghold — or rather, we were 
just about to enter. 

"But who gives these orders, one after the other?" 
I asked. 

"The Sultan communicates them to a chamberlain, 
who transmits them to officers on duty outside." 

" Well, then, the Sultan is not at prayer ?" 

"No; that is one of the thousand European errors. 
The mosque is not a place entirely consecrated to 
prayer. People can pray everywhere, since Allah is 
ever3rwhere. The mosque is principally a meeting -place ; 
all things can be discussed there, and they are dis- 
cussed. It often happens, too, like to-day," and they 
pointed to some servants who were carrying some trays, 
"that the Sultan invites those who are with him to take 
some refreshments. It is well to remember that the 
Selamlik was instituted only by the reigning family. 
Formerly the Sultan always remained invisible, and he 



2 56 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

might be assassinated in his palace and a successor sub- 
stituted for him without the people's having any idea 
of it. It was therefore decided that, cost what it 
might, he should show himself at least once a week to 
his people. It once happened that a Sultan who was 
dangerously ill was nevertheless carried to the Selamlik 
and died on his return to the palace." 

Just at this moment military orders were heard, the 
music struck up, the horses began to paw the ground, 
people rushed to the windows, and Abdul-Hamid, leaving 
the mosque, took his seat in a victoria, with Osman-Bey 
at his side and two of his aides-de-camp opposite, and 
started. We left the guard-house; our carriages were 
waiting for us, and we drove to the palace by the new 
road. This road was a wonderful sight. It is admirably 
made, and rises in a gentle incline cut in the side of a 
green slope, with trees dotted about here and there. 
What remains of the hill out of which it was cut forms 
a declivity sloping on both sides, leading, one toward the 
new road and the other going down toward the old road. 
The two slopes, the whole length of our drive, were 
covered with men, women and children, who had hurried 
there to see the Sultan. These are the rare occasions 
when Turkish women and children leave their homes 
to see an5n:hing that is taking place without, and no 
Mussulman dare forbid his family to be present. On the 
green grass of the slopes, and under the slight shade of 
the trees, the bright, harmonious colours of the ferehjes, 
or striped mantles of two colours, red and yellow, violet 
and white, blue and pink, showed up in great brilliancy, 
punctuated with red by the caps of the boys, who were 
frolicking about in and out of the groups. The women 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 257 

wore over their faces those veils which are more and 
more transparent, and against which, for mere form's 
sake, there are periodical trades ordering a return to 
thick veils ; but these trades only cause fleeting tumult 
that scarcely lasts a day. The veil is, I believe, 
destined to disappear altogether soon, and Turkish 
Women, conforming to the true precepts of the Koran, 
will show their faces, which have not been seen hitherto 
by curious travellers, and will only retain their flowing 
draperies, which cover their entire body in a perfectly 
modest manner. 

As we reached the gate of Yildiz-Kiosque, a soldier, 
acting as sentinel, advanced toward us. Philippe- 
Effendi leaned forward and murmured the word trade. 
The soldier stepped back respectfully, and, by a path 
which starts from the gate and turns to the right a 
hundred yards farther along, we reached a low door 
and entered Yildiz-Kiosque. Philippe-Effendi left us 
for an instant in order to ask Osman-Bey, the first 
Chamberlain, to have us conducted to the Marshals' 
room. As soon as he entered it, a caved ji brought us 
some coffee and cigarettes. We were invited to sit 
down and asked to wait. 

Ten minutes later a chamberlain appeared at the door, 
bowed, and asked me to follow him. We passed through 
two drawing-rooms, then along a large gallery divided by 
a red screen, and another drawing-room covered with 
fine matting, and the chamberlain, who walked in front 
of me, made a sign for me to wait there. I thought that 
this chamberlain was taking me to one of the Sultan's 
aides-de-camp, who would tell me when I could see his 
master, for so far neither Philippe-Effendi nor Waiss-Bey, 



258 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

nor Mr, Guaracino — either because they did not know 
or because, with that stubborn discretion peculiar to 
Oriental diplomacy, they did not want to compromise 
themselves — none of the three could or would tell me 
which day would be fixed for my audience with the 
Sultan. 

After a few minutes the chamberlain who was con- 
ducting me stopped in front of an open door, beckoned 
to me to approach, and I must confess that I was much 
surprised on advancing to find myself face to face with 
Abdul-Hamid, who was standing up in front of me. The 
Sultan was wearing the insignia of a Marshal of his 
army and the uniform of his Life Guards. His trousers 
were blue, with a double band of red, and were held by 
straps over his patent-leather boots furnished with 
rowels. On his straight coat he wore the military medal 
which had been presented to him by his army ; his cloak 
was lined with red and finished with plain, large buttons 
of reddish gold, and on his head was a red fez. 

Abdul-Hamid advanced to meet me and held out his 
hand. He was wearing gloves of soft, white kid, such as 
are adopted by European officers when on service. He 
invited me to sit on an armchair, and he sat down 
himself on a sofa covered with red damask with large 
blue flowers. He leaned back against a cushion and 
signed to a chamberlain who was standing in a doorway. 
This chamberlain was Raghib-Bey, and the Sultan 
ordered him to take the armchair near mine. 

To my left, between the armchair on which I was 
seated and the sofa where the Sultan was, there was a 
small, wooden table, gilded and with a slab of malachite, 
upon which were placed an onyx match-box, a small 




-•^i^^^ 



MONS. DE BLOWITZ, 

as he traveled to Constantinople in 1883 and as he was received by 

Sultan Abdul- Hamid 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 259 

oval ash-tray, also of onyx, and a cigarette case of 
chased silver. 

Raghib-Bey was to serve as interpreter. The presence 
of an interpreter certainly does prevent the conversation 
from being carried on rapidly, but this inconvenience is 
largely compensated by numerous advantages. In the 
first place, when one is in the presence of a personage 
like the Sultan, it is easier to express one's ideas to an 
interpreter, who will transmit them, than to the personage 
in question. Then, too, while he is replying, one can 
study his face without being preoccupied, because one 
does not understand what he is saying and one can also 
be preparing the conversation which is to follow. 

During my interview I noticed these three advantages, 
and to begin with, I was able to study Abdul-Hamid at 
my ease. 

He was rather above the average height, slight and 
almost thin ; he had a brown skin, warm and dry looking ; 
his beard was black, well groomed, and rather short and 
thick. His mouth was energetic, but sad; his nose, a 
regular Turkish nose, large, long and bony, with a slight 
deflection of the upper part of the nostril. His eyes 
were black, rather large, resolute, thoughtful, penetrating 
but not gentle looking; they were deep -set in the orbit, 
and as the light fell on one side of his face and left the 
other side in the shade, his eyes appeared to be remark- 
ably deep-sunk. His forehead was wide and straight, of 
medium height and slightly furrowed. The black hair 
which was visible on his temples, between the fez and the 
beard, was short and almost close-shaven. Abdul-Hamid 
was then forty-one years of age, but he looked more, 
particularly as he had lost an upper tooth on the left side 



26o MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

near the middle. He spoke in a louder voice than his 
subjects; his language was sonorous, his words distinct, 
and his phrases lengthened out and terminated without 
any hesitation. 

I expected to have Munir-Bey for interpreter, as he 
is the usual interpreter in such cases, but it was explained 
to me later that it would have been imposing upon 
Mimir-Bey an extraordinary task to have made him 
act as interpreter for an interview which he had by 
no means facilitated. 

"I am very glad," I said, bowing, as the Sultan signed 
for me to commence the conversation, "not to leave 
Turkey without being admitted to Your Majesty's 
presence, for, from all that I have seen and heard here, 
I believe that I am in accordance with the absolute truth 
in proclaiming that in Your Majesty are centred the great 
hope of this coimtry and the most certain remedy 
possible for all the many evils from which it is 
suffering." 

"I am very pleased to see you," he answered, "and I 
thank you for having wished to judge this country for 
yourself, for in Europe, and even in America, every one 
slanders it systematically, without taking the trouble 
to examine it closely. I am greatly encouraged in my 
desire to remedy the evils of this country by the fine 
qualities of its subjects and also by the great resources 
of the land. Those who maintain that Turkey is incur- 
able, slander us deliberately, and as though on purpose. 
What is required? Ameliorations in our finances, in 
our laws and in our administration, I have already 
been able to reform the organisation of the finances with 
regard to the civil list. My Government has not con- 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 261 

tracted any fresh loan for a very long time, and I have 
been able to arrange for the payment of the interest of 
the public debt. The floating debt is not as considerable 
as reported, but there must be some solution arrived at 
about it, so that it may not be an ever-increasing obstacle. 
People are wrong in representing me as opposed to liberty. 
I know that a country must keep up with the times, but 
the excess of a liberty to which one is unaccustomed is 
as dangerous as the absence of all liberty. 

"A country to which one gives liberty which the people 
do not know how to use is like a man to whom one gives 
a gun the handling of which he does not understand. 
He kills his father, mother and brothers, and then finishes 
by killing himself. We must, therefore, prepare the 
country for this liberty, and that is what I am trying to 
do. I have opened schools, and these are being multiplied. 
Education in its various developments is the best means 
of preparing people for liberty. I have also organised an 
administrative school, which has given very good results ; 
its pupils now occupy posts in our administrations — 
Raghib-Bey here present is one of them. You see the 
idea of making men capable of aspiring to liberty and 
of knowing how to use^ it does not alarm me. Besides, 
not one of our ills is incurable, and we have within us 
forces and qualities which will facilitate a complete cure. 
We have not many friends, but our country must be 
very fine since so many envy it, and their policy consists 
in discrediting us in order to make an easy prey of us." 

After a minute's silence he asked : 

" Were you at the Berlin Congress ?" 

"Yes, Your Majesty; and if the Sultan will allow me 
to say so, Turkey on that occasion made one of her 



262 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

greatest mistakes. When she ought to have been repre- 
sented by her most important and most imposing 
personages, she was represented by men who no doubt 
were very devoted and well-intentioned but who had no 
authority, who trembled before Prince Bismarck, and 
upon whom he could impose silence by a mere glance. I 
do not know why this mistake was made, but in Berlin 
every one was struck by it, and it was generally thought 
that the Turkish Government had sent plenipotentiaries 
of foreign origin so that the eventual consequences of the 
Berlin Treaty should not fall upon the Mussulmans." 

" Yes, you are right ; I have greatly regretted what you 
wisely call a mistake, and I still regret it, I understood 
it when I saw that Greeks had been admitted to the 
Congress who had no right to be there, and when I saw 
that, in the face of their admission, my plenipotentiaries 
did not protest and leave the meeting. It is when 
nations have been conquered that it is their duty not 
to cheapen their pride. But we were in a painful situa- 
tion, the enemy was at our gates, and we did not reckon 
much on the equity of Europe, for our friends there 
were not numerous. We had very few men who cared 
to go to Berlin to affront the decisions of this Congress, 
and to give their signatures to the treaty of spoliation 
which we foresaw. Sacrifices were imposed upon me 
then from which I am still suffering. Do you 
imagine that Bulgaria and Thessaly are any happier 
at present than they were before their separation? 
But no matter about that; this explains the mistake 
we made — it does not excuse it." 

"Your Majesty said that you did not count much on 
the equity of Europe; but neither England nor France 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 263 

have abandoned the defense of Turkey, and Your Majesty 
cannot reproach them with that." 

"Yes ; I have never reckoned them among my enemies. 
We have always sought their friendship, and in spite of 
all that has been done we have never failed to recognise 
the necessity of it. Unfortunately, of late clouds have 
arisen between us; but I hope that these clouds, and 
particularly the two chief somber points, will be dissipated 
by a friendly understanding. ' ' 

"Your Majesty is alluding to Egypt and to Timis?" 

"Yes. I saw with satisfaction that quite recently the 
English Government seemed disposed to evacuate. Do 
you think that England will soon decide to carry this 
into effect?" 

"I think, Sire, that in England they are contemplat- 
ing political evacuation ; but, although every one is con- 
vinced that England neither proposes annexation nor an 
indefinite occupation, one must take into consideration 
the political situation of that country. There is in 
England a force which it is difficult to appreciate else- 
where, and which is called public opinion. When 
England saw herself obliged to go alone to Egypt, it was 
necessary to stimulate this force in order to make it 
consent to a costly and dangerous expedition, and 
at present it will be necessary to allow the English 
Cabinet, which depends on the public opinion of the 
country, sufficient time to influence it and to make 
it admit that the occasion has come for evacuating 
Egypt. But, apart from these two points, Egypt and 
Tunis, France and England can have no reservation at 
present with regard to Turkey, and if Turkey, like all 
nations which are suffering, had not become more dis- 



2 64 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

trustful than in her better days, she would understand 
that she can from henceforth trust herself without 
reserve to the friendship of these two nations," 

"Yes; but in the meantime they have not hesitated 
to violate my rights. It was a great trouble to me, 
as I value their friendship very highly, and I fancy that 
mine is not to be despised by either of them. In so 
many different points we come into contact with each 
other, and a nation should take this seriously into 
account. Then, too, friendship between nations is not 
manifested by diplomatic actions only; it is shown 
also by the equitable way in which it judges a country. 
My country is judged superficially, and that is the reason 
it is calumniated. I value the opinion of Europe, and 
I wish that credence were not given there to those who 
amuse themselves with spreading satirical reports about 
us. Your words will be heard — so tell them and prove 
to them that after observing our country in an impartial 
manner one has a better opinion of it. I am told 
that you have seen a great many people here, and, 
as you must be in the habit of observing, will you tell me 
whether you have drawn any inferences from what 
you have seen?" 

"If Your Majesty will allow me to speak frankly, and 
I can scarcely do otherwise, as if I did I might be obliged 
to write to-morrow the contrary of what I said to-day, 
my opinion is this: I believe that every evil from 
which your country is suffering could be remedied, and 
easily remedied. But there are two difficulties : the first 
is, that all depends on only the will of Your Majesty, 
and consequently Your Majesty would have to give up 
to a certain degree this absolute will. The second 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 265 

difficulty is, that if Your Majesty decided to do this, 
those whom Your Majesty commands would have to agree 
to this partial and progressive abdication. Now, the 
curious part is, that those who depend on the absolute 
will of Your Majesty will probably be the first to resist 
a change which would prevent them from screening their 
own faults under the cover of the absolute orders of 
their Sovereign. But if once this were obtained, if 
Your Majesty could succeed in creating an administra- 
tion, with the capabilities and the energy necessary for 
carrying out the reforms decided upon, it would be an 
immense step toward the improvement of Turkey. Your 
Majesty holds in your hand all liberty, because you alone 
can will everything. If Your Majesty would open your 
hand, little by little, setting this liberty gradually free, 
in proportion as the country is capable of accepting 
and of using it, Turkey would rapidly rise from her 
present position. 

" The consolidation of the floating debt, the suppression 
of the havales, officials held responsible for what they 
do, roads opened up through the country, courts of justice 
established and public instruction always encouraged — 
these are the reforms which would soon bear fruit ; but, 
as I said before. Your Majesty must root out that 
spirit of absolute submission which causes every offi- 
cial to tolerate the continuation of abuses for which he 
is not responsible," 

" I understand perfectly well what you have just said," 
answered the Sultan. "I am glad to find that you do 
not share the opinion of those who believe that this 
country cannot recover. As to what you say with regard 
to myself, I am of your opinion, and I have quite decided 



266 MEMOIRS OP M. de BLOWITZ 

to gradually open my hand. The difficulty is to know 
just how far to go. When it v/as seen that this country 
could not support a constitution and a parliament that 
was not the entire representation of the country but 
only a part of the country, people came to me and began 
to talk about responsibilities. It was another way of 
reorganising a constitution. I refused this. Those who 
talked about responsibilities only saw in this a means 
of substituting their will for mine at the expense of 
others, and the consequence would have been that the 
great mass of the country would only have changed 
from the will of one to that of another. I am now 
trying, as you have just said, to prepare this country 
for the more independent part it has to play, and I 
have already modified many things, which are not 
remarked abroad, but which are, however, producing a 
good effect at home." 

Then returning obstinately to his first idea, he asked : 
"Do you think that the English will soon consent to 
evacuate Egypt ? " 

"I have already had the honour of replying to Your 
Majesty on this subject," I said. "But I will take the 
liberty of remarking that England is in Egypt against 
her will. When she asked Your Majesty to go with her 
to Egypt, influenced as she was by that secret dread 
which takes possession of all who are laying their hand 
on no matter what Ottoman territory, she was absolutely 
sincere. It was a great and terrible mistake of Turkey 
to refuse to accompany England, thus obliging her to 
go alone, which meant to remain there. History will 
consider, with equal astonishment, this proposal of 
England and Turkey's refusal. The only consolation 



._. J 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 267 

of Turkey, if indeed that can be any consolation, is that 
in this question France was no wiser than she was." 

I knew perfectly well that I had just attacked the 
Sultan direct. Not only had Abdul-Hamid been the 
principal author of Turkey's refusal, but he had refused 
to listen to the most trustworthy counsel; and for fear 
of displeasing the Mussulmans, a fear which was chimerical, 
far-fetched and not at all justified, Abdul-Hamid missed 
an opportunity, perhaps unique, of changing the char- 
acter of the Egyptian occupation and of maintaining 
an uncontested supremacy over the Delta of the Nile. 

I, therefore, awaited his reply with some impatience, 
I thought, or rather I feared, that he would bring forward 
some of those subtle arguments which the organs of the 
Ottoman press have endeavoured to circulate in order 
to attenuate the effect of the refusal of the Porte. But 
Abdul-Hamid, I repeat and I proclaim it, is a man of 
superior mind, who, when he is struck by sound reasoning 
is perhaps annoyed, but at the same time is influenced 
by it. As he had no good arguments to offer, and he 
would not stoop to poor ones, he did not reply, but 
changed the subject. This was, as any one can see, a 
tacit approval of what I had just said, and I learned, 
later on, that it was to be interpreted in this way. 

"When are you leaving?" he asked. 

" To-morrow, Your Majesty. " 

"So soon! I am sorry you are not staying longer. 
But I should like you to bear in mind that, if you write 
to me, either about things that have happened or about 
current topics, I will answer you. If, for State reasons, 
I am unable to, I will tell you plainly that I cannot do so. 
Take note, too, that if ever you come again to Constanti- 



268 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

nople, you must come the very day of your arrival to 
see me. You have only to say that it was my wish that 
you should come, that it was by my order you asked to 
see me, and I promise you that I will receive you. And, 
as I am now talking to some one who understands the 
gravity of the mission confided to the journalist who 
endeavours to find out the truth and to publish it, 
remember that I do not wish to suppress existing liber- 
ties, but to give new liberties; that I do not wish to 
increase the financial troubles of my empire, but to 
remedy them; and that I do not wish to suppress justice, 
but t*o establish and consolidate it. Remember that this 
nation, which bears in itself those causes of its weakness, 
also contains the elements of great strength, and that I 
wish to cure the former and make use of the latter. " 

Abdul-Hamid rose, and at this moment there was an 
expression in his eyes which showed that he was deeply 
moved. I quite understood that he felt sincerely what 
he had just been saying to me, but that at the same time 
he saw rising up before him all the obstacles which stood 
between his plans and their realisation. He had just 
been pleading, as it were, to a European journalist, the 
cause of his race and of his people, and a struggle was 
perhaps going on within him between the duty of the 
monarch and the pride of the Calif. It did not last long, 
though. Abdul-Hamid drew himself up, went a few 
steps with me, and then, taking my hand in his, held 
it a few minutes while he spoke. 

" His Majesty thanks you for your visit, which he will 
remember with pleasure," interpreted Raghib Bey, 
"and he begs you to accept this in memory of this 
conversation." 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE SULTAN 269 

He handed me a book containing the insignia of the 
second order of the Medjidie, just as I had bowed to 
Abdul-Hamid for the second time at the door of the 
room in which he had received me. 

I found my friends where I had left them. They were 
rather surprised at my long absence. I explained to 
them what had happened, and we decided to go to 
Osman-Bey, the First Chamberlain, and present my 
thanks according to the custom of the country. 

Osman-Bey, one of the most enlightened Turks, who 
has established and endowed the largest existing printing 
works in the Ottoman Empire, received me with the 
affability peculiar to Turks of the educated class, and, 
after offering us coffee, called one of his officials, who 
appeared to be accustomed to this duty, to fasten on 
the right side of my coat and to place around miy neck, 
in spite of my tourist's costume, the insignia of my new 
dignity, so that, as Osman-Bey said, according to the 
prescribed formula, "the will of the Sultan may be ac- 
complished." 

I then left the Yildiz-Kiosque with my friends. The 
numerous Turks whom we met saluted me respectfully 
without appearing astonished at my accouterments, 
which made me feel somewhat embarrassed. 

The guards of the palace shouldered arms, and as I 
passed through the last gateway I perceived a crowd of 
persons looking at me. They understood that I had just 
had an interview with the Sultan. But I could not 
refrain from saying to myself : 

" I only hope that no caricaturist will catch sight ci 
me!" 



CHAPTER XIV 
Exile of the French Princes 

There is no regime and no government which at some 
time or another does not make a mistake, and I believe 
that a grave error was committed by the French Republic 
when, in May, 1886, it decided to expel from the country 
the Princes belonging to the dynasties which had reigned 
over France; the Count de Paris and his son, the Duke 
d' Orleans, on the one side, and Prince Jerome Napoleon 
and his son. Prince Victor Napoleon, on the other. I 
think it was a mistake because, in the first place, when 
a democratic government inscribes on the walls of its 
public buildings the great word "Liberty," its desire 
should be to have liberty exist not only for, but also 
against, itself; in the second place, because exile is a 
barbarous punishment which ought to disappear from 
the customs of contemporary civilisation; and lastly, 
because, by exiling the Princes, to whom she had hitherto 
shown hospitality, the French Republic thereby gave them 
the right to conspire against her. She could no longer 
appeal to their sentiments of honour to respect the order 
of established things ; she placed them in the best position 
that claimants to the throne could wish — that of being 
able to conspire at their ease. 

Without paradox, I say that if I were the government, 
it seems to me that for my own personal tranquillity, I 

270 



EXILE OF THE FRENCH PRINCES 271 

should allow myself the luxury of having in my country a 
pretender as a hostage. 

Now, the Count de Paris, in particular, the heir to the 
throne of Louis Philippe, could not be considered as a 
very dangerous pretender. Tall and strong, with a 
frank, placid sort of face, intelligent, loyal but not bright 
eyes, a firm-looking mouth, which had a kind but not 
melancholy expression, sturdy on his legs, but with a 
slight stoop, his shoulders square but sloping, his physical 
appearance was, on the whole, more that of a bourgeois 
than of a candidate for the crown. 

He delighted in work of a long and serious nature, and 
loved social problems the solutions of which are liable 
to demand a lifetime. 

It was with veritable enthusiasm that he penned a 
voluminous work on the American Civil War, and, on 
the 2ist of July, 1874, he wrote me a long letter on 
that subject from which I quote the following character- 
istic passage : 

"I have," he said, "found great satisfaction, in the 
midst of my trials during the last few years, in accom- 
plishing this work, which has been considerable, and in 
placing on the scene, after conscientious researches for 
historical truth, actors who are most of them known 
to me personally. I have found in this an occupation 
during my exile, something to refresh my mind at critical 
moments. It was not for the sake of bringing back 
my vanished illusions, nor with the idea of turning my 
thoughts from the present to the past, that I have con- 
tinued this work, which I commenced a long time ago. 



2 72 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

What illusions could I have lost ? My confidence in the 
future, my conviction that my country will recover 
morally, outlive in my mind all the vicissitudes it has 
experienced. And if my thoughts turn often toward 
America, it is in order to recall to memory the crisis 
which I witnessed, the discouragement and trouble which 
in those difficult times seemed to have taken possession 
of all hearts, the gloomy predictions which I heard on 
all sides, and to say to myself that, after all, the day 
came when those who had reasoned calmly saw their 
patriotic confidence justified in a most brilliant manner." 

It seems to me that the whole character of the Count 
de Paris was reflected in that letter. He was waiting 
without eagerness or regret for the hour that Providence 
should decree for him to ascend the throne. He had 
very few illusions and a kind of vague presentiment that 
that hour would never arrive for him. He was an enemy, 
not only of violent means, but even of all noise and 
agitation. It seemed as though he were destined to 
end his days peacefully. 

This was the precise moment chosen by the Republic 
to place round the forehead of this "model pretender" 
the halo of exile. 



As soon as I heard that the bill for the expulsion of 
the French Princes had been introduced into the Chamber 
of Deputies, I went to the Chateau d'Eu in Normandy, 
where the Count de Paris and all his family were then 
residing. 

I had already had the honour of seeing the heir to 



i 



EXILE OF THE FRENCH PRINCES 273 

the throne of Louis-PhiHppe several times, and we had 
kept up a rather lengthy correspondence with each other. 
As soon as I asked for an audience, he accorded it willingly. 
He received me in his library in the midst of his books 
and of the telegrams of sympathy which were pouring 
in upon his table from all parts of France. 

I assured him that I had not come for an interview, 
but to express to him how grieved I was personally at 
the thought of the terrible exile with which he was 
threatened. 

"Oh!" he answered, "in this circumstance, as in so 
many others, there is no need for me to ask you to keep 
our meeting secret. When I heard at Tale vera that 
the bill of expulsion had been laid before the 
Chamber, it was not of myself that I first thought, 
nor yet of my family. I thought of my country, and I 
felt a great sadness come over me at the idea that, 
after a hundred years of struggle and discord, the era 
of proscription had not yet closed, and that the children 
of France should be seen wandering about in a foreign 
land without any home." 

"And where do you think of going, monseigneur, " 
I asked, "if, as seems probable, the bill should pass as 
regards you and the Duke d' Orleans ?" 

"I have not yet definitely decided, but I think very 
seriously of going to England. I have received from that 
country so many and such inviting proofs of general 
sympathy, and I have such touching letters from persons 
that I do not even know, that at present it will be difficult 
for me to seek refuge elsewhere. I cannot go to Germany ; 
Austria would be too far away from our beloved France ; 
and I know only too well, from a certain experience that 



2 74 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

I have not yet had time to forget, that London is the 
centre of information — so that I am very much drawn 
toward it. 

" I thought of Switzerland, but I can go there later on, 
for I do not intend to stay definitely in any fixed place. I 
have no intention of buying a house or of settling down 
for good. Formerly, when in exile, I chose a fixed 
residence, because circumstances were then different. I 
was not at that time the uncontested head of the House 
of France, so that I could then wait, without failing in 
any duty, for events to take place. At present it is 
not the same thing, and I do not give up hope of seeing 
my country again, for, even under its present form, I 
cannot believe that this persecution will continue and 
that France will not reopen her doors to all her 
children. 

"That is why I do not wish to settle down definitely. 
I shall go away and we shall try to imagine that we are 
travelling; we shall change our abode without changing 
our hopes." 

"Is it true, -monseigneur, that a General said to you at 
the reception on the 15th of May, 'Monseigneur, you have 
not only soldiers, but an army?' " 

" Such a remark was never made to me. Besides, there 
were on the occasion, only two Generals present, both of 
whom were retired officers, and neither of them had any 
conversation with me — neither of them uttered the 
phrase you mention. A great many reports were spread 
on that occasion, and many pretexts were sought for. 
I was told that the Premier had taken exception to my 
having invited some Ambassadors. I could not have 
advised him of the fact, for that would have been giving 



EXILE OF THE FRENCH PRINCES 275 

to my invitations a political character they did not 
have. I did not invite the diplomatic corps; I simply 
invited to a family party some diplomats who were my 
personal friends. 

" I had known Lord Lyons, for instance, for twenty-five 
years and had always been on friendly terms with him. 
It would have been giving a political character to my 
invitations if I had excluded Lord Lyons because he was 
the Ambassador of England. I have also been blamed 
for certain newspaper articles. That merely shows how 
short of arguments some people were. I neither knew of 
nor yet did I inspire these articles, otherwise I should 
have said to their authors, as I have said to all my friends : 
'Do not let any one misrepresent the character of this fete. 
I am the father of a family inviting his friends, and this 
little reunion has not been prompted by any other idea.' " 

" Monseigneur, " I said, "as it is probable the bill will 
be passed by which you alone and the Duke d' Orleans 
will be exiled, and the other Princes will be allowed to 
remain in a more or less tolerable position — will these 
Princes follow you?" 

"I have just communicated to my brother my formal 
desire that he should remain, since he has a right to do so. 
I particularly wish him to stay here where I can no 
longer reside; I particularly desire that he should live in 
the land from which I am exiled. I have already told 
you I do not intend to take up any fixed abode. 

" I cannot expect that he should travel about with me, 
and make his home in the places where I stay according 
to circumstances or according to my preferences. It will 
be a consolation to me to feel that he is here, and I know 
too well his affection for me not to be compelled to act 



2 76 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

with authority in order to insist on his staying in France. 
A great deal has been said about the Duke d'Aumale. 
When he learned the way in which his defense had 
been taken in order to save him from exile he was very- 
bitter. He came at once to see me and he made no secret 
of his visit. 

"It was the best and, indeed, the only way to reply to 
those who wished to prove that they were right in insist- 
ing that he should be allowed to remain in France. I 
will say of him what I said about the Duke de Chartres : 
I cannot compel him to go wandering about. He has 
not, as I have, the duties of the exceptional situation 
which this law demands of me; it treats me in such a 
distinctly exclusive manner that if I had adopted it 
myself it would have been imputed to me as a crime. 
By separating me from the rest of my family, they 
qualify me in a more ostensible way than I should ever 
have done, and if my pride were greater than my love of 
my country I should be now delighted. As to the other 
Princes, they have never troubled about politics, but 
have remained content with serving their fatherland. 
It is only just, therefore, that they should be held 
blameless of any crime, and it would be strange if I 
were to show myself more exacting toward them than 
are our adversaries." 

" People say, monseigneur, that you wanted to wait 
until you were expelled by force instead of obeying a 
simple order." 

" They do not know me well who say that. I can see 
only two ways of proceeding. Three centuries ago a 
Prince in my situation would have killed any one who 
had come with such an order, and would have rushed 



EXILE OF THE FRENCH PRINCES 277 

off to the country with his comrades to start a civil war. 
But that is neither in accordance with my character nor 
with our times. I shall obey the law. I owe that to 
my friends and I owe it to my adversaries. I owe it to 
my country, too, for it is being taught to scorn the law. 
I shall depart in obedience to the law, of which I shall be 
duly informed." 

"Shall you keep the day of your departure a secret, 
monseigneur?" 

"No; certainly not. Unless I am obliged to act 
differently, I shall start by daylight, and I know my 
friends well enough to be sure that when I take leave of 
them they will all act in a dignified way, as becomes the 
friends of an exiled family dear to them. I shall be 
glad to shake hands with those who come to see me off, 
but when the moment arrives, it is for consolation that 
I shall look rather than for noisy demonstrations." 

I have taken care to reproduce the Count's exact 
words; in the first place, because they do him honour, 
and in the second place, because he adhered to them 
scrupulously. 

When, on the 22nd of June, 1886, at ten o'clock in the 
evening, and in the same library where he had spoken 
to me of his plans when in exile, the Count de Paris 
received the decisive telegram announcing that by a 
majority of thirty-seven votes the Senate had ratified 
the decision of the Chamber of Deputies and voted his 
exile, he showed no sign of anger or revolt. 

He went down into the large salon, where all the 
Princes of France , were anxiously awaiting him, and, 
handing the telegram to the Duke d'Aumale, he simply 
remarked : 



2 78 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

"The bill is adopted in its entirety by a majority of 
thirty-seven votes. We start the day after to-morrow." 

And on the second day, at two o'clock in the after- 
noon, the piers being black with people, an English boat, 
which had hoisted on its mainmast the tricoloured flag, 
sailed slowly away from the Treport quay. 

I can still see that scene. The sun was shining bril- 
liantly and the deck of the boat was covered with flowers. 
On the bridge stood a man, bareheaded, his handkerchief 
in his hand, his head bent slightly sideways over his 
shoulder. His figure, which usually had a slight stoop, 
was now erect, making him look taller. It was the 
Count de Paris leaving for England — an exile. 

For a long time he remained thus standing on the 
bridge, gazing at the sunny shores of France from which 
he had just been torn away; and it seemed as though 
his eyes wanted to take in every bend of the coast in 
order to engrave it forever on his memory. Perhaps, 
since he had the conviction that he would never reign 
over this country, had he also at that solemn hour a 
presentiment that in all his life he would never again see 
the land of France ? 



J 



CHAPTER XV 

San Remo 

I DOUBT if in modern times, or perhaps even in the 
past, a greater or more impressive, more effectingly 
tragic episode has ever taken place than that of which 
the marvellous region of the Cote d'Azur, by the shore 
of the eternally blue Mediterranean, was the scene during 
the winter of 1887-88. 

On the frontier which separates France and Italy, in 
the delicious little town of San Remo, among the palms 
and the orange trees in blossom, there, in the sunlight 
and the fragrance which bathed the white city, a man 
whom suffering had vanquished was slowly dying. He 
was the son of the old Emperor William I. and son-in-law 
of Queen Victoria. I refer to the Crown Prince, Frederick 
William. 

The whole world had its eyes fixed on this town and 
on this man. With anxious curiosity everybody was 
watching the frightful struggle in progress there, the 
object of which was to prolong the life of the doomed 
heir to a throne. Would he live long enough to become 
Emperor? Would he have the strength to traverse the 
little space separating him from one of the greatest 
thrones on earth? Who would be the first to die, the 
old Emperor, enfeebled by age, or his son, enfeebled 
by sickness ? Who would be Emperor, the Crown Prince 
Frederick or the young man, ardent, impetuous and 

279 



2»0 



MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 



impatient, known as Prince William? All the world 
over these were the questions that people were asking 
themselves and to which they were awaiting a reply, 

San Remo had, one might almost say, been taken by 
storm by reporters from every country immediately 
after the arrival of the Crown Prince there. Opposite 
his villa was a hotel, the Hotel de la Mediterranee, People 
almost came to blows in order to secure a front room there. 
Certain American papers had sent out young ladies as 
reporters, relying on their sex for procuring them certain 
privileges. These ladies from morning to night kept 
levelling their photographic apparatus at the villa, the 
garden, and more especially at the balcony on which, in 
the afternoon, Frederick William was wont to try to 
soothe his suffering as he listened to the somewhat 
distant murmur of the sea. To protect him against this 
inquisitorial examination, a high wall of verdure had been 
constructed, and on the balcony a screen had been 
placed. But this was all so much time and trouble thrown 
away. The reporters, men and women alike, ascended 
to the roof of the hotel, and from that vantage point, 
plunging their vision beyond both screen and wall of 
verdure, photographed and gazed and listened to their 
hearts' content. 

Yet they obtained little enough. No one, at all events, 
had the slightest inkling of what was taking place in the 
interior of the villa, whither no outsider had been allowed 
to penetrate. The occupants, orderly officers, doctors, 
maids of honour, servants, were all extremely discreet. 
Not the slighest echo escaped by the windows; not a 
morsel of gossip issued by the door. Reporters and 
journalists remained in an ignorance anything but blissful. 



ti 



SAN REMO 281 

and telegraphed nothing of importance. i\s one of them, 
a Frenchman, remarked: 

"So little is known as to what is going on around the 
Crown Prince that it is impossible even to exaggerate or 
to give play to one's imagination. " 

I myself, happening to be at Monte Carlo, had gone 
over to San Remo, and had striven to penetrate a little 
the mystery, to raise a comer of the veil, to bring back a 
few echoes of the tragedy which was evidently taking 
place — which I felt certain was going on behind the walls 
of verdure. But I had completely failed, and had left 
San Remo disappointed, irritated, but haunted by the 
image of this villa, picturesquely suspended in its garden 
of verdure, but tantalisingly mute and as enigmatic as a 
sphinx. 

One morning, however, in the first week of March, 
1888, I found among my correspondence a letter with 
a mauve envelope. 

I recall vividly even now its very form and colour. 
The letter was in a large and fine feminine handwriting. 
It contained only four lines, as follows: 

"If you wish to know all about the tragedy of San 
Remo, why do you not try to find Madame Zirio?" 

More than once during my long and adventurous 
existence I have received just such mysterious and 
anonymous suggestions. They were not always written 
on mauve letter-paper, nor did they always emanate 
from a feminine hand. According to my humour 
at the time, or to the presentiment I felt, or to the 



282 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

sensations aroused in me, I either filing them into the 
waste-paper basket or religiously heeded their contents. 
And when I adopted the latter resolution I never had 
cause to regret it. 

I remembered quite well the name of Madame Zirio, 
whom I had met once in the south of France. She was a 
tall, handsome woman, with bright, honest eyes, a delicate 
yet energetic mouth, and brilliant, black hair, in which, 
like the women of Catalonia, she often wore a large 
fantastic comb. Her whole bearing, thanks to her 
Marseilles extraction, betrayed the suppleness of the 
Phocians and the wavy motion of the Greeks. She was 
married to an Italian, M. Baptiste Zirio, who was always 
ill, and I was unable to make out what possible connec- 
tion there could be between her and the dying heir of the 
German Empire. Yet I felt a presentiment bidding me, 
" Go ! " — and I went. The same evening I packed my bag 
and boarded the Mediterranean Express for San Remo. 

When there, I discovered without diihculty the little 
house occupied by Madame Zirio. I rang the doorbell 
and was ushered in. It was only after I found myself 
seated in this lady's drawing-room that the humour of 
the situation struck me, and that I began to wonder how 
I should explain my position to my hostess. 

I concluded that the simplest means were the best, 
and when Madame Zirio appeared and we had exchanged 
compliments I showed her the mauve letter. 

She blushed a little and then turned pale. 

"It is really strange," she said. "I, too, received a 
letter yesterday almost identical with this one. The 
handwriting was very much like this and the colour of 
the paper was the same. Mine also contained four lines: 



SAN REMO 283 

'If you receive the visit of a celebrated journalist, why 
not tell him the truth about the tragedy of San Remo ?' " 

The coincidence was, to say the least, odd. I hastened 
to add that the mysterious person who had sent these two 
letters certainly knew what she was about, for Madame 
Zirio, whose name had hitherto been pronounced by no 
one in the world, whose very existence was unsuspected by 
any journalist, was, in reality, the proprietor of the white 
villa occupied by the Crown Prince Frederick. It was 
she who had supervised all the preparations and who, 
having only five weeks allotted her, had engaged and 
trained the admirably discreet corps of attendants, from 
whom no one at San Remo had been able to extract the 
slightest information. It was she who had daily access 
to the interior of the princely habitation and who was 
consulted hourly, by night as well as by day, as to what 
had to be done ; and it was she to whom Prince William 
had paid a visit during his forty-eight hours' stay at 
San Remo, and to whom, in token of his gratitude 
and friendship, he had even given his photograph 
with a dedication. 

Madame Zirio had herself arranged the apartments. 
The ground floor was used as a general drawing-room 
and dining-room The first floor was occupied by the 
Crown Prince and his wife. A large bedroom, with two 
small beds exactly alike, communicated by a large 
dressing-room and by a small corridor with the apart- 
ments of the Maid of Honour, Countess of Briihl. 

On the second floor were the apartments of the Prin- 
cesses, Princess Victoria, who was engaged to Prince Alex- 
ander of Battenberg, and who, displaying her hands, which 



284 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

were intemiinably long, said with a laugh, in French, 
''Moi fai desHohenzollerns les mains, les pieds et les oreilles, 
c'est enorme,^' and Princess Sophie, who on the eve of 
her return to Berlin said, "I am glad to leave, for I 
was almost forgetting here that I am a royal Princess. " 

The Crown Prince was so delighted with the house 
when he first entered it that, after almost joyfully raising 
his cap and throwing aside his long, brown ulster, he 
exclaimed to Madame Zirio: "I am touched by the 
attentive way in which everything has been arranged for 
our stay here. One feels that it is the eye of a woman, 
and the eye of a woman of this lovely coast, which has 
watched over everything for us." 

And seated there in Madame Zirio's drawing-room, 
only a few steps from the white villa and near the blue 
sea, my hostess, obeying the mysterious letter on the 
mauve paper, related to me what was called "The 
Tragedy of San Remo. " 

It was indeed a veritable tragedy, and behind the 
peaceful walls of the sunlit house there were some terrible 
struggles and certain frightful rivalries. The sick rnan 
had brought with him German doctors, among whom 
was Professor Bergmann, and English doctors, the most 
prominent of the number being Sir Morell Mackenzie; 
and between these doctors the quarrels were almost 
dramatic in their intensity. At the outset the Germans 
held their peace, relatively speaking; but later on they 
expressed their opinions of Sir Morell Mackenzie with a 
brutal want of self-control, even going so far as to say 
that he furnished information to the press, and that on 
this information he speculated on the Bourse. The 



SAN REMO 285 

servants and attendants were all either German or 
English and reflected the dissensions of the doctors. 
Count von Seckendorff, who had taken up his abode in a 
dark room, into which the sun never penetrated, on the 
groimd floor, was the inflexible partisan of the royal 
Princess, while Count Radolinski sided with the Germans. 

Between the two parties there was not one single mo- 
ment of truce. The struggle was somber and silent, but 
it was visible on any and every occasion. The two 
camps attacked and dishonoured each other. When the 
moment arrived to perform the operation of tracheotomy, 
the wretched battle continued even around the tube 
which was to prolong the agony of Frederick III. The 
German doctors wanted a German tube; the English 
doctors an English one. Finally, under the direction of 
the famous American doctor, Thomas Evans, a gold- 
smith constructed the model which was adopted. 

On the 9th of November, 1887, at 6:30 p. m., another 
element of tragedy heightened the dramatic character 
of the situation. Prince William of Prussia arrived at 
San Remo. The local authorities. Prince Henry, his 
brother, and the aides-de-camp awaited him. With his 
characteristic impulsiveness, Prince Henry rushed for- 
ward to throw himself into his brother's arms. Prince 
William stopped him with a haughtiness that did not 
escape observation. His face was grave and he looked 
sedate and hierarchic. The smiles vanished from the 
lips of the onlookers and the veil of sadness seemed 
still heavier. 

During his visit, which lasted forty-eight hours, 
Prince William saw very little of his father, if, indeed, he 
saw him at all. But he had a long talk with the German 



i286 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

doctors, displaying toward their English colleagues 
either disdain or utter indifference. 

"My mother," he said, "is really very shortsighted in 
substituting English for German science. Bismarck, who 
never makes a mistake, considers German science superior 
to all other." 

He went with his brother and sisters on a few short 
sea trips, which was his way of spending the afternoon, 
and appeared quite gay, as though he had nothing 
whatever to worry him. 

"You see," he said, "it is better to have only boys, 
for a girl gives much more trouble and is a great 
deal more expensive. One must have a governess for 
her, a maid of honour and quite a complicated house- 
hold, whereas boys can be dressed all alike in uniform. 
One piece of stuff serves for them all. My boys are all 
dressed as gunners, even the youngest, who is only 
eighteen months, and who is corporal. On his last 
birthday I took command of his company and marched 
it past the Emperor William. It was the last time he 
laughed, and he laughed till the tears came trickling 
down his cheeks, for he saw the little corporal marching 
past, straight and upright, turning his head at the word 
of command." 

On the day following his arrival Prince William 
announced his departure. 

"Ah, so much the better!" said Madame Zirio, who 
chanced to be there. "Then the Crown Prince is im- 
proving and the last consultation was reassuring?" 

"Oh, no!" replied Prince William; "on the contrary, 
my father, as was foreseen when I left Berlin, is despaired 
of. He is suffering, without the slightest doubt, from 



SAN REMO 287 

cancer. It is a matter of only a certain number of 
days, perhaps weeks. I am going, because there is no 
longer anything to hope for. My grandfather is much 
weaker. The Czar is coming, and my presence at Ber- 
lin is indispensable. I think I shall still have time to 
return here." 

There were a few moments of silence, and then 
Madame Zirio exclaimed, laughing : 

"Will you allow me to say, ' Au revoir, future 
Emperor ? ' " 

"Willingly," replied the Prince, and he then took his 
leave. 

The following day he left San Remo for Berlin. He 
was absolutely sure that his father's case was hopeless, 
and his conviction was strengthened by the verdict of 
those doctors in whom alone he had faith. In his 
opinion, Morell Mackenzie was an ignoramus whose 
assertions were not worth discussing in presence of the 
infallible verdict of the German faculties. 

On the 7th of February — just four weeks before I 
arrived at San Remo — at 11 a. m., the Crown Prince and 
his wife were about to go for a drive on the Corniche in an 
open carriage. Doctor Mackenzie and Doctor Bramann, 
Doctor Bergmann's assistant, were at the door of the 
villa. Just as the driver was about to start the horses, 
who were growing impatient, a slight breeze sprang up on 
the coast. Mackenzie, walking toward Bramann, made 
a sign to the driver, who pulled back his team. 

The Prince, with a sad look in his eyes, turned his head 
toward the doctors. 

"This promenade is imprudent," said Mackenzie to 
Bramann. " The respiration is becoming difficult. Two 



288 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

hours hence it may perhaps be too late, and. Bergmann 
will not be here for two days. We must come to a 
decision." 

"I shall never have the courage to assume the 
responsibility of this operation," replied Doctor 
Bramann. 

The Prince, who was watching them both, saw that 
Bramann was growing pale. 

"At all events," replied Mackenzie, "before allowing 
him to go out we must make a fresh examination." 

He signed affectionately to the future Emperor, 
inviting him to get out of the carriage, and the Crown 
Prince flung off the furs that covered his knees, and, 
turning toward the Princess as if to ask her pardon for 
having spoiled her drive, he stepped down and entered 
the house. 

The doctors then examined the throat once more. 

"I will wait an hour." said Doctor Mackenzie. "If 
there is no change, you must operate." 

An iron bedstead was sent for, the head-rail of which 
was broken for the convenience of the doctors. The 
bed was placed in the middle of the room with a red 
cushion on the pillows. 

At one o'clock there was a fresh examination. 

Doctor Mackenzie, after a rapid glance, merely turned 
to Doctor Bramann and said : 

"Are you ready?" 

" Yes," was the latter' s reply. 

The Prince lay down on the little iron bed. He was 
quite calm. 

" Is chloroform indispensable ? " he asked. 

"Yes, Prince," replied the Doctors. 



SAN REMO 289 

The anesthetic then began its work and Bramann took 
off his coat. The operation was commenced. 

Two hours later it was over and the Crown Princess 
Frederick entered the apartment of her maid of honour, 
the Countess of Briihl, exclaiming v/ith sobs : 

' ' Fritz has the tube in his throat. ' ' 

All this, I need hardly say, is history, and even now 
as I write these lines I can recall vividly the scene at 
San Remo, when Madame Zirio related to me, as the 
shadows fell, the whole story of this tragedy in which 
she herself had been so absorbed a spectator. 

This interview, as I have said, occurred on the 8th of 
March, 1888. As I sat there drinking in every word 
that fell from the lips fo my hostess, and fixing them 
faithfully in my memory, something more intensely 
dramatic than all that precedes took place. 

The drawing-room door suddenly burst open and a 
servant rushed in, completely out of breath : 

" Madame, madame ! " she exclaimed, " you don't know 
the news?" 

"No. What is it?" 

"It has just come from the White Villa. The old 
Emperor has just died at Berlin." 

A moment later we were on our way to the White 
Villa. 

I shall never forget this historical scene, one of the 
most affecting I have ever witnessed. 

In the Crown Prince's garden a pall of sorrow seemed 
to hang like an atmosphere. Officers, major-domos, 
sentinels and servants were hurrying hither and thither 
in strange confusion. The large drawing-room on the 



290 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

ground floor was brilliantly lighted, and through the 
windows we could see everything that was going 
on within. 

The members of the household had all assembled there 
and were standing in a circle. The conversation was in 
undertones. All seemed to feel the strangeness, the 
really extraordinary position of this sudden elevation of 
the Prince, whose death had already been discoimted 
and deplored. 

Suddenly the door was opened and the "Emperor" 
appeared. 

He had become handsome again as in the radiant days 
of his youth. His beard, with a few silver streaks, 
glowed in the brilliant light of the chandelier. Tall and 
well built, he dominated the entire company. His blue 
eyes were slightly misty. His delicate complexion, now 
heightened with a little colour, seemed to show the real 
tranquillity which had taken possession of his soul, and 
his mouth, with the red lips, had now that fascinating 
smile which characterised him. 

With a firm step he walked straight to a small table 
in the middle of the drawing-room and wrote — ^for the 
tube prevented him from speaking — a few lines, which 
he signed. An officer read the paper aloud. It was 
the announcement of the death of the Emperor William I. 
and of his own accession as Frederick III. 

The Emperor then walked toward the Empress, made 
a long and reverent bow, paying full homage to his wife's 
valiant courage, and with a grave and tender gesture 
passed round her neck the ribbon of the Black Eagle. 

The Empress, with tears in her eyes, threw herself into 
the arms of Frederick III., and as they embraced they 



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SAN REMO 291 

gave full vent at last to their sobs, which they had so 
long and so heroically restrained. 

All then present marched past the new Emperor. 
Doctor Morell Mackenzie, who had performed the 
operation, stopped somewhat longer than the others. 
Frederick III. had seized his two hands, clasping them 
warmly. At a small table the Emperor wrote for him 
a few words of gratitude : 

" I thank you for having made me live long enough to 
recompense the valiant courage of my wife." 

After this brief scene everybody left the drawing- 
room. The Emperor ascended with the Empress to his 
apartments on the first floor. The lights gradually 
went out. Once more the White Villa was plunged in 
shadow and silence. 

The next day I left San Remo for Paris. I have never 
since seen Madame Zirio, and I cannot say whether she 
has kept the mysterious mauve letter. Nor have I any 
idea even now as to the author of its strange contents. 

During my journalistic career I have been aided by 
many a chance; I have met with many extraordinary 
incidents, but no chance, no incident has appeared to 
me more marvellous than that which led me to San Remo 
to witness the final scenes of that historic tragedy which 
had aroused the passionate interest of the whole world. 

And I felt it my duty in these, my memoirs, to devote 
to this episode an entire chapter, for it will show the 
remarkable part which the inscrutable goddess called 
Destiny plays in the career of a journalist. 



CHAPTER XVI 
How Bismarck Retired 

This chapter might also be entitled, "Of the diffi- 
culties experienced by a journalist who wishes to 
maintain cordial relations with a diplomatist. " 

And I write it, not only for the sake of retracing an 
episode of contemporary history with which I was con- 
nected, but also to show the strange obstacles, the 
unexpected contradictions, and the unheard-of difficulties 
that a journalist must face in order to keep the public well- 
posted on the great events that are happening in the world. 

In 1892 Germany was represented in Paris by an 
Ambassador who was first Count, and then Prince 
Miinster. 

Count Miinster was one of the most striking types of a 
German I have ever met. He was like a straight, healthy 
tree brought from one of the German forests, and the 
continual contact with the diplomatic world had only 
softened very slightly the ruggedness of his bark. He 
had that frigid and somewhat monotonous slowness of 
Germans who are given to reflection. He had neither 
that feminine gracefulness so frequently found in 
diplomatists, nor yet that quick understanding with 
which women are usually credited. His somewhat 
imposing physical heaviness gave one the exact idea 
of his moral nature, and this curious and rare con- 

292 



HOW BISMARCK RETIRED 293 

cordance of the exterior and the interior was almost 
perfect in his case. 

Count Miinster was Ambassador at Paris at a very 
difficult period. The relations between the two countries 
were far from being then what they have since become. 
There was great tension between Paris and Berlin, or, to 
speak more exactly, between the French nation and the 
German nation. There were frequent incidents springing 
up, either on the frontier or in the very heart of the 
capital, which rendered the task of the diplomatist and 
the Governments of both countries extremely arduous. 

Rumours of war were sometimes heard in the distance. 
In addition to this, the mission of Count Miinster 
was rendered all the more complex from the fact that, 
in Germany, the most serious and disquieting quarrels 
were beginning to take place between the Emperor, 
William II., and his formidable Chancellor, Prince 
Bismarck. There were rumours of resignation in the air, 
and German diplomatists abroad did not know whether 
the orders they received from Wilhelmstrasse came from 
the master of yesterday or the master of the future. 

Finally the resignation of the Chancellor was announced 
in March 1 89 1 and fell like a thunderbolt. All the subordi- 
nates of Bismarck wondered whether the retirement of 
their chief from power meant their own dismissal. 

Count Miinster on his arrival in Paris had done his 
utmost to be agreeable to every one and had proved 
himself to be most conciliating. He had invited me 
several times to the Embassy and had talked to me a 
great deal about the difficulties of his mission, the com- 
plexity of his position, and the unsatisfactory condition 
of international relations. He had always welcomed 



294 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

me most cordially, and had almost insisted upon my 
returning to see him, to keep him posted with regard 
to public opinion, and to give him any advice I might 
think useful for the maintenance of peaceful relations 
between the two countries. 

One morning in June, three months after the resigna- 
tion of Prince Bismarck, I read without much surprise, 
in several journals, a telegram from Berlin to the effect 
that "there was a rumour afloat there of the recall of 
Count Miinster, German Ambassador in Paris, and that 
he was to be replaced by another diplomatist. " 

I went immediately to the Embassy and asked the 
Count how much truth there was in this statement con- 
cerning him. 

The Ambassador was rather nervous and irritated. 

"They aie stabbing me in the back, " he said. " They 
cannot forgive me because, in the quarrel between the 
Emperor and the Chancellor, I sided with my Sovereign. 
Prince Bismarck cannot put up with the situation of 
being nobody, and he wants to drag others down with 
him in his fall." 

"Excuse me," I interrupted, "but I thought that, on 
the contrary, the Chancellor had accepted his withdrawal 
from public affairs very philosophically, and that he 
was rather glad to be relieved of the burden of 
power." 

"I thought so, too," answered Count Miinster, "but 
I thought so for only half an hour. At the end of thirty 
minutes my illusions had vanished and I knew what 
to think of his frame of mind." 

And then, before I had added a word or asked another 
question of any kind, Count Munster, with a shade of 



HOW BISMARCK RETIRED 295 

irony in his voice, began the following extraordinary 
story, which I now tell without altering a single word : 

"On Wednesday, the 19th of March of last year" 
[1891], " I arrived at Berlin. My first call was on Prince 
Bismarck. I was quite ignorant of w^hat had taken 
place the previous day. The Prince, after the exchange 
of the first greetings, told me that he had resigned. He 
made the statement in a calm voice, a smile on his lips, 
congratulating himself on being able to resume his country 
life, of which he was so fond, to revisit his forests and 
broad plains, for which he had a strong liking, and of 
becoming himself once again during the few remaining 
years he had to live. In short, he was happy at the idea 
of its being possible for him to spend the whole of his time 
without being harassed by constant anxieties and worries. 
I evinced great surprise at this news and attempted 
some objections; but I did not maintain this line of 
conduct long, for the countenance of the Prince, his 
language and tone of voice impressed me greatly, and, I 
should add, filled me with admiration for him. I dis- 
covered in him a wonderful philosophy, the accents of a 
man who divests himself of his honours and power 
with ease and manly resolution, and who, with the 
satisfaction of having well occupied his life and accom- 
plished his duty, resumes the path which leads him to 
nobly won repose. I asked myself how such a man's 
place could be filled, and I did not comprehend how, in 
view of the attitude he must to the last moment have 
maintained, the young Emperor could have taken it 
upon himself to part with a man who, by the self-control 
of which he was giving proof at so very critical a moment, 
showed what eminent services he might yet have rendered 



296 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

his master. Yes, I confess the more the Prince's 
attitude excited my admiration the less could I account 
for the Emperor's having decided on overturning him, 
and the less could I see how such a man was to be replaced. 
This twofold idea haunted me while the Prince was 
speaking, and then, as often happens in such circum- 
stances, I suddenly recalled to mind in full detail two 
scenes which I had witnessed, two conversations which 
I had heard. From that moment, while listening to 
the Prince's monologue, I understood how the Emperor 
could have conceived and realised the idea of provoking 
and accepting the Chancellor's retirement, and I foresaw 
the successor he would give him. Then all became 
clear to me on the two points. I knew the yoimg 
Emperor's perfect veneration for his grandfather, and 
I placed together this respectful homage and the first 
scene which my mind had called up. 

"A year before his death, at a tea-party which he 
attended, the old Emperor, who had long been conversing 
with a lady, raising his voice so as to be heard by me and 
others, uttered the following words, which had fixed them- 
selves in my memory : 

'"Yes, I assure you, you do not see things from such 
a good standpoint as I do, but Bismarck has become 
very stubborn, and it takes all my strength of will to 
put up with him ; but when I am driven to extremities 
and things cannot go on further, the choice of his successor 
will not embarrass me. My mind is made up — it will be 
General Capri vi.' 

"As the lady appeared somewhat amazed at the name, 
Emperor William continued : 

"'Yes, the man is not very well known, but I have 



HOW BISMARCK RETIRED 297 

had him under my orders, I have often talked with him, 
and I assure you his appointment is the best possible 
choice if it ever becomes necessary to part with 
Bismarck.' 

"I was, therefore, almost convinced that General 
Caprivi would come into office, for I was sufficiently well 
acquainted with Emperor William I. to know that he 
must have held the sam_e language to his grandson, to 
whom he always repeated on the following day the con- 
versations he had had, and to whom he must certainly 
have repeated the one I have just recalled. 

"As I continued to listen to, and at times to converse 
with, Prince Bismarck, my surprise increasing at the 
continued calmness with which he was relating his 
resignation, another of the Emperor's conversations 
flashed across my mind and greatly lessened the astonish- 
ment I had at the first moment experienced when Prince 
Bismarck informed me of his retirement. I remembered 
that some considerable time before the Emperor William's 
death, at a period when his health was fairly good, he at- 
tended a 'punch' given by his grandson, the present 
Emperor, to officers of all arms. Prince Bismarck had 
shortly before appointed his son. Count Herbert, Secretary 
of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

"The Emperor William I,, speaking aloud, concealing 
nothing from all the officers who were listening, said: 
' It must be admitted that this young Count Herbert has 
got on prodigiously fast under the rule of his father. 
It is the greatest act of nepotism which politics have 
ever recorded.' 

"I took the liberty of saying to the Emperor, 'But 
how is it Your Majesty has not made the remark to him, 



298 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

for I see that this act of favour, of such importance to 
pubHc affairs, has not escaped your observation ?' 

"'Why,' said the Emperor, 'I cannot at this moment 
part with the Prince ; he is necessary to his country and 
is still necessary to me. I should have readily made the 
remark to him, but I reflected that, as he does not feel 
the impropriety of these extraordinary promotions, 
he could not take the remark coolly, and that, if I made 
it, it might have more serious consequences than I 
intended.' 

" The more I reflected on these two conversations of 
the Emperor William I., the less surprised I was both at 
Prince Bismarck's resignation and at the young Emperor's 
resolution, for I saw that, in accepting the resignation, 
he had, as it were, followed the indications of his grand- 
father's desire, and had beforehand chosen the successor 
pointed out to him. Knowing how profound was his 
respect for the old monarch, I felt convinced that he 
considered himself screened by these recollections and 
by that authority ; and that they had inspired him with 
the energy and resolution of which he had given proof 
in parting, almost harshly, with the Great Chancellor. 

" I rose and said to the Chancellor that, as the Chamber 
was sitting, I was going thither. 

" The Prince replied : 

"'Wait a moment; I will put on my uniform and 
accompany you. ' 

"He left the room. A few minutes afterward I heard 
the Prince and the Princess talking in a very animated way 
and in a loud tone. Their conversation lasted a quarter 
of an hour, at the end of which time the Prince reentered 
the room, without having changed his attire. He had 



HOW BISMARCK RETIRED 299 

a large letter open in his hand. He had turned pale 
and had an irritated expression. He came up to me 
and said : 

"'I cannot accompany you. I have this moment 
received a letter from that young man in which he informs 
me that he confers on me the title of Duke of Lauenburg ; 
this plainly indicates that my resignation is definitive 
and my disgrace complete. I cannot accept such a 
retirement. He will soon see that a Bismarck is not 
dismissed in this style.' 

"He then began walking up and down the room in 
great wrath, uttering threats, accusing everybody, 
inveighing against his adversaries and the intriguers 
who had worked in opposition to him. I saw, in short, 
a man who was vociferating against his fall, and whom 
the conversation with the Princess had evidently worked 
up, for at all times she and his son had incited him to 
violent resolutions. It was they who encouraged him 
in all the precipitate or extreme acts with which he had 
been reproached. 

" I then comprehended that when he had received me 
and had talked with such philosophic calmness and 
dignity of his resignation, he did not believe it was final, 
but, notwithstanding all that had passed, was persuaded 
that the Emperor would ask him to resume his post and 
not to consider his resignation as definitive. I confess 
that I was then struck by surprise and sadness. I took 
leave of a man who in the space of a single visit had so 
strangely altered in my eyes." 

So spoke Count Miinster. He added to his extraordinary 
story a detail which was decidedly piquant. On going 
away after his last interview with the Chancellor, 



300 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

he asked before leaving the house whether it would not 
be possible for him to pay his respects to Princess 
Bismarck. But an aide-de-camp of the Emperor, who 
was just passing by and who recognised him, said : 

"Oh, no, Excellency! I do not think it would be a 
favourable moment for you to see the Princess. . . . 
To give you an example of the state of mind she is now 
in, a little while ago I took her a portrait of the 
Emperor which had been sent by His Majesty to Prince 
Bismarck as a souvenir. On seeing it the Princess 
exclaimed, 'Let it be taken to Friedrichsruhe and placed 
in the stable!' " 

As he finished, Count Miinster turned to me and said : 
"You see why I have reason to believe that Prince 
Bismarck is not reconciled to his fall. I have also reason 
to believe that he does not forgive me for not having 
followed him, and the report of my recall, spread abroad 
by his friends, is more the expression of a desire than of 
a reality," 

Thereupon, after' talking about several other matters, 
I left Count Miinster and went away. 

In the evening I telegraphed an account of this memor- 
able interview to the Times. The next day it appeared 
in the coltimns of that paper. The day following it was 
reproduced by the press of the whole world, for it had 
been transmitted by telegraph to the farthest extremities 
of the globe. It gave rise everywhere to the most varied 
comments; some were ironical, others indignant, still 
others amused. An English paper which republished it 
in extenso added the following line: 

"M. de Blowitz has once more been guilty of grave 
indiscretion. " 



HOW BISMARCK RETIRED 301 

Here, by way of parenthesis, I should like to say a few 
words on a subject which I have deeply at heart. In 
the course of my long career the phrase I have just 
quoted has been printed about me at various intervals. 
I have more than once been accused of indiscretion and 
more than once the epithet "indiscreet" has been applied 
to my name. 

I will begin by saying that none of those persons who 
have reproached me in this way could ever quote one 
example, one single example, to show that when I gave 
my word of honour to be silent, or when I promised not to 
repeat anything, I have ever broken my word or promise. 
I defy any one to prove that I have ever committed an 
act of treachery, and only to give one instance, when 
Pope Leo XIII., after a conversation of more than an 
hour, in the course of which he had made certain state- 
ments that would have caused a great stir in the world, 
asked me, through Cardinal Jacobini, to give my word of 
honour not to repeat what had been said, I gave it, and 
not only did I never repeat a word of the pontifical 
statements, but I even destroyed the notes I had taken 
and endeavoured to forget what had been said. 

But if one calls it an indiscretion to repeat things that 
have been said to me, a journalist, by persons who have 
not taken the precaution to demand secrecy; if it be an 
indiscretion to try to find out what is going on and to 
tell what one knows, to inform the public of all that one 
has discovered— why, certainly, then I flatter myself 
that I have been indiscreet; I boast of it, and it is an 
extra reason for my being proud. I consider that a 
journalist is, first of all, the servant of his paper and of 
the public. I consider that he ought to keep nothing 



302 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

hidden from them; I consider that all he knows, all he 
learns, all he sees, all he hears and all that he feels belongs 
to his paper, and that there is only one single law in the 
world which should prevent him from speaking, which 
should close his lips — the law of honour ! 

How often have people, sometimes people in very high 
positions, come to me and said, " I am going to tell you 
something extremely interesting, but it is with the under- 
standing that what I tell you is for you alone, and you 
must not say a word about it in your paper. " 

I have always answered them : 

"Then don't tell me your story; keep it to yourself. 
I am not inquisitive for my own sake — only for that of 
my paper. I do not care to know what happens if the 
public is not to know it. I am a journalist and not a 
confessor !" 

And it has always seemed to me extremely grotesque 
for people to imagine that a man who is a journalist, who 
spends all his time, uses all his efforts, his brain, his 
energy to know about things, who goes to see Ministers, 
who receives Ambassadors at his table, who rushes to the 
other end of the world to interview Sovereigns, should do 
all that for the solitary pleasure of being well posted, of 
knowing for himself, just for his own private self, what 
is happening, so that he may store it up in his own 
memory and never let it be known. 

No; I have always told things when no imperative 
obligation prevented my doing so. I have always told my 
paper and my readers all that I knew, because they had a 
right to know it. And I maintain that journalists who 
are silent when they could speak fail in their duty to the 
paper which they are supposed to serve and in their 




SILVER STATUE, REPRESENTING "TELEGRAPHIC CORRE- 
SPONDENCE," GIVEN TO M. DE BLOWITZ ON HIS 
RETIREMENT, BY THE PARIS CORRESPONDENTS 
OF ALL F0REI(;N PAPERS, DECEMBER i8, ig02 



HOW BISMARCK RETIRED 303 

duty to the public for whom they are supposed to be 
working. 

This said, I return to my story. 

When Count Miinster, who had not asked for secrecy, 
saw in the Times of June 30, 1881, the account of 
Prince Bismarck's resignation which he had related 
to me, he did not at first show any signs of displeasure 
or of surprise. He did not offer the slightest protest. 

His displeasure only commenced three or four days 
later, when he received some cuttings from German 
papers criticising in disagreeable terms his statements. 
His displeasure was transformed into serious annoyance 
when the cuttings were followed by letters from friends 
of Prince Bismarck, written in the most angry and 
threatening terms. 

The Ambassador then, and not until then, weighed 
the importance of the words he had uttered, and was 
anxious about the consequences to himself that those 
words might entail. Accordingly, eight or ten days 
after the publication in the Times, Count Miinster sent 
me a secretary from his Embassy, who spoke to me as 
follows : 

"The Ambassador," he said, "regrets that in the 
account you published, and which was very exact, you 
should have introduced the name of Princess Bismarck. 
He fears that the comments raised by this incident may 
cause him serious unpleasantness. He therefore wishes 
me to inform you that, in order to attenuate the effect 
produced, he will ask the Wolff Telegraphy Agency 
to declare that there was a certain amount of imagination 
in the story published. He sincerely hopes that you 
will not take this amiss, and that you will only attribute 



304 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

this rectification to the imperative necessity of circum- 
stances." 

I merely replied : 

"Tell Coiint Miinster that if the publication of his 
conversation is really likely to cause any annoyance to 
him, I shall take no exception to the slight reserve he 
wishes to make, and will not even protest in any way." 

Thereupon, Count Miinster's messenger thanked me 
heartily, and the next day the Wolff Telegraph Agency 
communicated an official note to all the papers, stating 
in the name of the German Ambassador in Paris that 
there was a certain amount of imagination in the account 
published in the Times about the resignation of Prince 
Bismarck. In accordance with my promise, I made no 
reply. 

But, strangely enough, this official note, instead of 
calming the papers devoted to Bismarck, appeared to 
have exasperated them still more. They declared that 
this rectification was equal to an avowal ; they denounced 
the German Ambassador in Paris in the most violent 
terms; they demanded that he should take back his 
words; they coupled with his name epithets which were 
almost abusive — in a word, they opened wide the flood- 
gates of their anger and indignation. 

This fearful deluge caused Cotmt Munster to lose all 
his composure, and without consulting me this time, a 
month after my article had appeared in the Times, he 
published a fresh denial in the following terms : 

" We are authorizd by Count Munster, who is at present 
at his country seat at Demebourg, near Hanover, to 
deny the authenticity of the account of an interview 



HOW BISMARCK RETIRED 305 

with him published a few weeks ago in a newspaper. 
The article appeared without his knowledge, and he 
repudiates all responsibility for the statements contained 
in it." 

And as the storm, far from calming down, continued 
to rage, on the 2nd of August — I say the 2nd of August — 
absolutely wild with terror (that is his only excuse), 
Count IMiinster went so far as to write to Coiint Herbert 
Bismarck a letter beginning as follows : 

"I beg you to tell the Prince that I am quite beside 
myself on account of the invention of this . 
Blowitz, and to express to him my regret at the wrong 
use which has been made of my name." 

The dots in this phrase represent an epithet, probably 
abusive, which the Hamburger Nachrichten thought 
better to suppress. 

I will stop here, and will not qualify the action of a 
man bearing a well-known and respected name, who, 
after having acknowledged the exactitude of a statement 
made by him, after having asked permission, for private 
reasons, to add some attenuation, after publicly declaring 
that there was "some imagination" in what had been 
published, leaving it understood that there was much 
that was true, and after asking for a promise that no 
reply should be made to his statement, could forget 
himself to such an extent as to write a letter of the kind. 

I was, however, more than avenged, for public opinion, 
which finally gave judgment on the matter, did not 
doubt for a single instant who told the truth — the diplo- 
matist who spoke or the journalist who was silent. 



3o6 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

For more than six months afterward, the organs 
of Prince Bismarck continued their attacks against 
Count Miinster, thus proving the value they attached 
to his denials, and the Ex-Chancellor himself said 
"I shall never forget it," clearly showing toward ■which 
side his opinion leaned. 

I particularly wished to write this chapter in order 
to show the treatment to which a correspondent exposes 
himself when he wants to tell the public all he knows, 
and also to show how almost impossible it is for those 
two complex beings, the diplomatist and the journalist, 
to have any intercourse with each other. In order for 
them to agree, the former must keep silent about what 
he knows and the latter must talk about that of which 
he knows nothing. As soon as the one ceases to keep 
his counsel and the other tries to be informed about 
that of which he talks, what happened to me will 
happen again. 

May this serve as a lesson to diplomatists and also to 
journalists ! 



CHAPTER XVII 

Diplomacy and Journalism 

And nov/, as I have dwelt briefly on that deHcate and 
complex question of the relations between Journalism 
and Diplomacy, I do not see why I should not narrate, 
in a final chapter, some of the numerous anecdotes on 
the same subject which are now present in my memory, 
or why, before the last pages of the book are reached, 
I should not give some proofs of the ingratitude and 
treachery which represent to the journalist who does 
his duty the cost-price of any success he may obtain. 

During my long career it has happened to me only 
once that a public man, a statesman, has testified with 
any warmth his surprised gratitude at an act of personal 
discretion on my part done at the expense of immediate 
journalistic success, when he himself had, so to speak, 
furnished me with the very element of this success. 

One evening in November, 1875, I happened to be at 
the Quai d'Orsay house of the Due Decazes, who was 
then French Minister of Foreign Affairs. We were in 
the billiard room. The Duke was full of spirit. He was 
playing at billiards with a friend of the Duchess, who 
was playing so well that she seemed likely to win. 
Suddenly the door opened. A Cabinet attache entered 
and handed to the Duke a small bundle of telegrams. 
Opening the packet, the Duke began to read one of the 
telegrams. Suddenly he became red, then pale, and 

307 



3o8 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

wiped his temples moist with sweat. Then, as if 
maddened, with an irresistible movement, he took the 
billiard cue, which he had put down, struck it on the rim 
of the table, broke it across his knee and threw the bits 
into the fire. The persons present, it may be imagined, 
were in a great state of mind. Suddenly approaching 
me, his teeth set with anger, he said: "Do you know 
what I have just heard? Derby has just bought 200,000 
Suez shares from Ismail, while every possible effort has 
been made to conceal from us, not only the negotiations, 
but even Ismail's intention of selling them. It's an 
infamy ! It's England putting her hand on the Isthmus 
of Suez, and my personal failure has in no way retarded 
the act. I authorise you to say what you have just 
seen. I even beg you to say it, and to add that Lord 
Derby will have to pay for that." And he added, half 
/^ talking to himself, " Yes, I swear that he shall pay for 
it ! " He then quickly left the room, and I, too, went out. 
On the way I went over the scene in my mind as I have 
here described it from my notes of the time. I saw 
instantly what an impression the story would make 
when told in my telegram, and reproduced throughout 
the world to the glory of the journal in which it appeared. 
But when I took up my pen to write it out, other 
thoughts invaded my mind. I saw the two Ministers 
of Foreign Affairs of England and France pitted against 
each other, the malignity of certain diplomatists poisoning 
the wound, and I understood that, after all, I could not 
tell the story, even though I added that I was authorised 
to do so, for the mere publication would have all the 
aspect of a veritable provocation. I saw that it would 
only furnish arms to the foes of the Due Decazes, whom 



DIPLOMACY AND JOURNALISM 309 

so many people desired to overturn, and that this revela- 
tion of Lord Derby's cleverness would be gratuitously 
interpreted as in itself an aggression, I dropped the 
pen and left the ofiQce, announcing that I would not return 
that night. On the morrow, at eleven o'clock, I was 
told that there was a messenger from the Due Decazes. 

Immediately after luncheon I went to the Quai d'Orsay. 
The Due Decazes had just come down to his work, and 
I was immediately introduced into his cabinet. He 
handed a telegram to me. In a tone almost harsh he 
asked, "Why didn't you publish the scene that you 
witnessed yesterday, as I asked you to do ?" I explained 
to him my reasons for keeping silent. He got up, seized 
both my hands, looked at me with profound emotion, 
and said: "You understand that I have just said what 
I did as a joke. You have acted as a friend of the 
Minister, as a friend of peace; and never shall I forget 
what you have done for me — for us ; for you have sacrificed 
a journalistic success to your sense of duty. Believe 
me, the latter is the better memory." 

The Due Decazes remained two years longer in power, 
when he was carried away by the electoral storm which 
burst in the false coup d'etat of the i6th of May, 1877. 
If he ever referred to the purchase of the Suez Canal 
shares by Lord Derby, the matter has remained a diplo- 
matic secret; the public has known nothing of it, and 
the spirit of France was not troubled. To-day Lord 
Derby and the Due Decazes are no more. The shares 
have remained in the peaceful possession of Great Britain, 
and Lord Derby could feel at his death that he had been 
the author of one of the most clever and paying acts of 
patriotism possible; for besides the immense hold which 



3IO MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

this act has given to England on the affairs of the Suez 
Canal, it annually gets from this possession to-day the 
enormous sum of ;^i 7,000,000. 

I must add that on two other occasions I saw the 
Due Decazes the victim of almost the same anger, and 
on both occasions he recalled to me the incident of which 
I had just spoken and the gratitude which he felt in 
reference to it. I happened once to be with him at 
Vichy, when the sons of Ismail were stopping there 
in the charge of an Egyptian colonel and a tutor whose 
name escapes me. One day these Princes gave a dinner. 
They invited the Due Decazes and me as well. The 
Duke sat at the right of Ismail's eldest boy, and I was 
on the second son's left. The dinner, entirely in the 
European fashion, was served by a single mattre d'hotel. 
The soup had been passed before we sat down to table. 
The maltre d'hdtel first served the eldest of the Princes, 
then the second, then the others (I believe they were 
four), and it was only then that he served the Due Decazes, 
who appeared to be somewhat surprised. But he un- 
doubtedly thought it only a single oversight, and, as 
he was forbidden fish, he refused the course. But the 
same thing occurred throughout the dinner. The younger 
Princes were mere children, with good appetites, accus- 
tomed to be humoured like Princes brought up by tutors 
who trembled before them, and they turned and returned 
the dishes to get the best portions, so that by the time 
the plates reached the Due Decazes they presented 
anything but an appetizing appearance. The Duke 
had become a little pale. He had omitted the second 
course, as I have said. The following course he had 
refused so as to make his thought apparent, hoping that 



DIPLOMACY AND JOURNALISM 311 

that would suffice to call attention to the mistake that 
was being committed. He was the French Minister of 
Foreign Affairs; Vichy was French soil; and it was, so 
to speak, France whom these young foreign Princes had 
invited to their table. All honour was due to France. 
The dishes ought certainly to have been first passed to 
the Duke, and only if he refused to help himself before 
the eldest Prince, should the plate have reached him 
second. But matters went on quite differently. During 
the entire dinner — and it was a long one — the plates 
were offered in succession to all the Princes, and came 
back pillaged to the Due Decazes, who refused them. 

I saw his anger rising to his face as the dinner went 
on. I feared an explosion. But the diplomatist re- 
strained himself, and the gentleman in him found a 
smile to respond to the Prince every time that the latter 
addressed him, which, however, was not often. When 
the dinner was over the Duke called to him the Master 
of Ceremonies, and said to him quietly, but in a tone of 
muffled wrath : " You are not very well up in the arrange- 
ment of official dinners, sir. I will see that you get 
better instructions." And while the officer became 
livid at these words, the Duke turned his back on 
him and, coming up to me, said: "This time, too, I 
beg you not to say anything about this ridiculous busi- 
ness; it will be quickly set right." And, indeed, the 
result was, I believe, that the unfortunate officer soon 
lost his situation. 

The other time when I saw the Due Decazes angry, 
and when he silently recalled my discretion in reference 
to the Suez shares, was as follows: France had sent a 
vessel, the Orenoque, to Civita Vecchia, where it anchored 



312 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

and for some years was there as a sort of defiance to the 
conquered unity of Italy. The idea was that if it were 
necessary the Pope might find there a refuge in Itahan 
waters as a safe stage in getting away to foreign soil. 
This ship, anchored there in constant protest against the 
occupation of Rome by the Italians, became an object 
of irritation in Italian eyes. The Chevalier Nigra, then 
Italian Ambassador in Paris, often spoke to me of what 
he picturesquely called '' une faute d'orthographie obstineey 
which France was committing in her relations with 
Italy. 

"But why," said I to him one day, "why don't you 
speak to the Due Decazes ?" 

"That's impossible," replied the ChevaHer Nigra. 
"Once I mention the matter to him, we shall have to 
go up to the very end. In a matter of this sort there is 
no half-way point, for when a nation has said, 'I beg 
you to withdraw this ship,' it must soon add, 'I wish 
you to withdraw it.' But you, when you see the Duke, 
explain to him what I have just been saying, that he 
may understand why, notwithstanding the irritation 
this matter of the Orenoque causes, I cannot speak of it 
to him." 

And, indeed, as a result of this conversation I saw the 
Due Decazes. 

"We certainly should have this matter out between 
us," said he to me; "but it must be quite clear that 
the conversation is to be a purely friendly one, quite un- 
official, and that no written trace shall remain of it, and 
that all that is said shall be said from me to him, and 
from him to me." 

The conversation took place. I afterward learned 



DIPLOMACY AND JOURNALISM 313 

that it finished with these words, uttered by the Chevaher 
de Nigra: "You will force us to seek the friendship of 
those who treat us less cavalierly." I had the bad luck 
to drop in at the Quai d'Orsay just at the moment when 
the Chevalier de Nigra was going out. The conversation 
with the latter had exasperated the Due Decazes, and 
when I entered his room he was in a paroxysm of anger. 
I saw it as soon as I entered, but it was too late, and in my 
embarrassment, not quite knowing what to say, I limited 
myself to these words, which were quite contrary to my 
habit: 'Eh hien, M. le Due, qu'y a-t-il de nouveauf 
(" Well, Duke, what is the news?") The Duke, who was 
only looking for an excuse to burst out, roughly replied : 
" Really, mon cher, it isn't my business to do your corre- 
spondence. " I got angry in my turn ; I stopped suddenly 
and replied: "True, sir; but it's a very good thing for 
my readers that it is not your business." The Duke 
remained a moment uncertain, but as I started toward 
the door he burst into a laugh and, getting up, came to 
me and said : " Allons, give me your hand and make peace. 
You know well enough that I promised never to get 
annoyed with you." And, indeed, amid all the vicissi- 
tudes of time and things, I had the honour of keeping his 
friendship to the end. 

On another occasion, and so to speak, in spite of myself, 
I mentioned a diplomatist from whom I had a commu- 
nication. This diplomatist, who still occupies a highly 
important post, wrote to me in 1876 as follows, thanking 
me for an invitation to dinner addressed to him on the 
intervention of a common friend, " I have now for a 
long time desired to make the acquaintance of a man 
whose reputation is based on a journalistic work beyond 



314 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

and above all criticism, " etc. We were soon on the best 
of terms, and I know few persons whose gift of lively, 
piquant, anecdotal talk was so fine as his. One day, 
while passing through Paris, he fell ill at a hotel. I 
went to see him, and showing me a copy of a confidential 
despatch addressed to his Government, he said, "Sac-a-la- 
papier" (this was his way of saying Sac-a-papier) "read 
that — it would be amusing to publish. " I was naturally 
of his opinion, and he ended by giving it to me, urging 
me to cut out anything which appeared to me compro- 
mising. I went through this work of expurgation most 
conscientiously. The telegram appeared in a remote 
corner in the outer sheet of the paper. It did not make 
the stir I had expected, and, indeed, it was very little 
spoken of. But the Minister of Foreign Affairs to whom 
it was addressed noticed its publication and spoke of it 
to my friendly informant, who forthwith wrote me a 
violent letter as if I had abused his confidence, quite 
forgetting that it was he himself who had entrusted the 
despatch to me for publication, 

I have never seen this remarkable and charming man 
since, and the loss of his friendship is the price I had to 
pay for having involuntarily stripped him, as regards his 
chief, of that useful anonymity behind which alone a 
trained diplomatist manages to preserve the sweetness 
of his manners and the charming smile of his lips. 

Need I recall for the edification of any journalist who 
reads this that in his relation with diplomacy he must 
always remember that the true diplomatist necessarily 
knows nothing of gratitude ; that he regards the journalist 
as an auxiliary, sometimes useful and always dangerous; 
and that he will never hesitate to throw him overboard 



DIPLOMACY AND JOURNALISM 315 

when it suits his ideas of his duty to do so? In this 
connection I recall a striking and decisive illustration. 

It was in 1874, at the moment when the Arnim trial 
was going on in Germany. Baron Holstein, who had 
played so curious a role in connection with Count Arnim, 
was Second Secretary of the German Embassy at Paris. 
His intervention in this terrible question between Arnim 
and Bismarck was not liked and was badly judged here. 
French public opinion looked askance on the hand of 
Germany in the interior politics of the country, and 
Baron Holstein was violently attacked for his role in this 
matter. The Journal des Debats, which enjoyed then a 
real power and influence, was particularly noticeable in 
its campaign against Baron Holstein, and its attitude 
was such that, if persisted in, Baron Holstein's stay at 
Paris must necessarily have become impossible. It 
was at this time that I received a visit from Mr. Rodolphe 
Lindau, who was also at the German Embassy and who 
brought to me a document justifying Baron Holstein. 
By very convincing arguments he showed me that I ought 
to undertake his defense against the Journal des Debats. 
In the existing state of French public opinion this was a 
heavy task ; but I undertook it conscientiously as a duty, 
and I had the satisfaction — always so rare, however — of 
seeing that paper lay down its arms before my arguments. 
This took place toward the end of December, 1874, and 
on the 30th of that month Baron Holstein wrote to me 
that if he had not been kept at home by an attack of 
la grippe he would have hastened to come in person to 
thank me. A week later, on January 8, 1875, indeed, 
he did come, and thanked me warmly. I had made, he 
said, by my courageous intervention, his stay in Paris 



3i6 MEMOIRS OF M. de BLOWITZ 

possible. We talked for some time of his personal situa- 
tion. I told him that I was myself just then in a critical 
place, not surely knowing whether or not I should succeed 
Mr. Hardnian as chief correspondent of the Times, and 
that I had, of course, many competitors to whom I could 
oppose only my devotion and my work. Some days 
after — ^that is, on January i6 — a friendly hand sent me 
a letter of Baron Holstein, sixteen octavo pages in length, 
bearing the superscription: " Kaiserlich Deutsche Both- 
schaft in Frankreich, " and entirely written and signed by 
the Baron's hand. It was addressed to one of the most 
intimate friends of Mr. John Delane, editor of the Times, 
and denounced me as quite under the thumb of the Due 
Decazes, and as wilfully ignoring and concealing from 
my readers an Orleanist plot which was preparing a coup 
d'etat. In this letter the Times was urged to send to Paris 
some clever and impartial person to keep the paper 
informed of what was here going on underneath as well 
as on the surface. 

This letter, I repeat, reached me on January i6, a 
week after Baron Holstein's visit of gratitude, and it had 
been sent on the 12th. I need not say that I have care- 
fully preserved this curious and instructive document 
now for almost eighteen years, and if I divulge it to-day 
it is because it is so appropriate in these pages, showing, 
as it does, with what stoicism a diplomatist bent upon 
his duty rids himself of the duty when he thinks that he 
ought to do so in the interests of a higher cause. 

My memoirs are now at an end. 

The life of a journalist is so ephemeral, what he accom- 
plishes is so swiftly swept away, what he writes is so 



DIPLOMACY AND JOURNALISM. 317 

promptly wiped out by oblivion, that I have taken the 
liberty, in the preceding pages, of retracing, as they 
return to my mind, some of the historical events in 
which I happened to play a part. 

I have written this book without any other after- 
thought than to survive, for a few months, TIME — that 
rolls by and carries all away. I have not narrated every- 
thing that I have seen or learned during my long and 
adventurous career, because I consider that I have the 
right to unfold only secrets that are mine, and because 
I do not wish to follow the example of some men who, 
when they speak from beneath the tomb, accuse, attack, 
destroy — and only give their victims an opportunity to 
reply by dipping their nails into the planks of one's 
coffin. 

All that I have written is the expression of truth. I 
have considered it my duty to present, in their real 
simplicity, events with which I have been closely con- 
nected, and which others, in their narratives, have 
amplified less in order to tell the truth than to disguise it 
at my expense. 

I have never sought applause nor feared criticism. 
I know that the fatigued reader stops on the way. I 
need not, therefore, ask those who have followed me to 
the end to refrain from reproaching me too severely for 
the time they have spent in the company of so poor a 
personality as myself. 

THE END 



INDEX 



Abarzuzza, M., 79 

Abdul- Hamid, Sultan of Turkey, 

244, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 

258-269 
Abdul Huda-el-Rifai, 246 
Adam, Mme., 236 
Agnel, Armand d', 20 
Alexander II., Emperor of 

Russia, 98, 99, 103, loS, 109, 

Alger, J. C, 77 

Alphonse XII., King of Spain, 

79, 86-88 
Alva, 158, 163, 164, 165, 166, 

158-177, 185-189, 192 
Alven, Doctor, 169-176, 179-183, 

165, 186, 188 
Andrassy, Count, 161 
Andrieux, M., 54 
Appert, General, 39 
Amim, Count, 315 
Aumale, Duke d', 276-277 
Austen, Charles, 42, 68 

Banuelos, Count de, 82-S5 
Banuelos, Countess de, 83 
Bardoux, M., 181 
Beaconsfield, Lord, 127, 148 
Beekman, Mr., 194, 195 
Bergmann, Professor, 284 
Berlin, Congress of, 116-139 
Bismarck, Prince, 93, 94, 95, 
114, 115, 123, 127, 129, 139, 
140—149, 150, 151, 161, 196, 
197, 200, 204, 205, 206, 293, 
294-300, 306 
Bismarck, Princess, 141, 299, 300 
Bismarck, Count Herbert, 297, 

305 
Blowitz, Henri Georges Stephan 
Adolphe de, birth, 3; escape 
from kidnappers, 4-7; educa- 
tion, 7-8; early travels, 8-13; 
return to the Chateau of 
Blowsky and loss of family 
fortune, 14; meeting with Count 



Blowitz de — Continued 

Kolowrath and visit to Paris, 
16-18; appointment to chair of 
foreign literature, 20; mar- 
riage, 20; failure of industrial 
inventions, 20-21; part in 
elections of 1869, 24-27; 
Franco-Prussian War, 27; 
naturalization as French citi- 
zen, 28; services during the 
-Commune, 29-32; bringing to 
M. Thiers nevv^s of entry of 
troops into Paris, 32-33; pro- 
posed consulate, ^^, 43, 44; 
decoration for services during 
Cominune, 34; meeting with 
Laurence Oliphant, 35; tem- 
porary appointment to the 
Times, 35; first telegram to 
Times, 38; permanent appoint- 
ment to Times, 44; report 
of M. Thiers's speech from 
memory, 47-48; summer with 
M. Thiers at Trouville, and 
part in champagne conspiracy, 
52-67; temporary appointment 
to Times as Paris corre- 
spondent, 77; interview with 
Alphonse XII. on the night 
of his proclamation as King 
of Spain, and telegram to the 
Times, 79-89; permanent ap- 
pointment to Times as Paris 
correspondent, 90; publication 
of the letter known as "the 
French Scare," 91-115; pub- 
lication in the Times of the 
Treaty of Berlin at the hour 
of its signature in Berlin, 116— 
139; five hours' interview with 
Bismarck, 140-149; friendship 
with Madame Marsa Chamil, 
and connection with her affairs, 
157-193; the Princess Kralta, 
195-211; the mystery of 
Mme. Elou, 212-233; P^rt in 



319 



320 



INDEX 



Blowitz de — Continued 

the events that led to France's 
attitude toward the Egyptian 
question in 1882, 234-241; 
visit to Constantinople and 
interview with Sultan, 242- 
269; interview with the Count 
de Paris on the occasion of 
the introduction of the bill 
for the expulsion of the French 
princes, 270-278; the tragedy 
at San Remo, 279-291; the 
true story of the retirement 
of Bismarck and the trouble 
caused by its publication, 292- 
306; instances of the gratitude 
of statesmen, 307-317 
Blowitz, Marc Opper de, 4 
Bramann, Doctor, 287, 288 
Briihl, Countess, 283, 289 
Buckle, George, 212 

Calmon, M., 31 
Capri vi. General, 296, 297 
Cemuschi, Henri, 211 
Chamil, Mme. Marsa, 157-193 
Champagne conspiracy, 59-67 
Chartres, Duke de, 276 
Clasczko, M., 96 
Clemenceau, M., 240 
Corti, Count, 119 
Cremieux, Adolphe, 28 
Czaski, Monseigneur, 218 

Decazes, Duke, 91, 96-101, 105, 
109, no, 117, 119, 307-313 

Delane, John, 47, 48, 75- 77> 
78, 89, 99, 100, 103, 104, 316 

Despres, M., 200 

Derby, Lord, 104, 308, 309 

Desprez, M., 133, 135 

Dosne, Mile., 54 

Dufaure, M., 119, 180, 181 

Dufferin, Lord, 244, 245 

Elou, Mme. Georgine, 213-218, 
219, 220, 221, 222—226, 228— 

233 
Essad-Pasha, 242 
Evans, Thomas, 285 
Exile of French princes, 270-278 
Fabre, M., 188 
FallouxMme., 18, 19 
Favre, Jules, 145, 146 
Fayet, Captain, 54 
Foster, Mr., 244 



Frederick William, Crown Prince 
of Germany, 279-281, 283-291 

Frederick, Crown Princess of 
Germany, 283, 289, 290 

French Scare of 1875, 91-115 

Freycinet, M. de, 234-239 

Gaillard, Colonel, 39, 40 
Gallifet, General de, 156 
Gambetta, M., 25, 26, 150, 151, 

152, 153715s. 181, 234-239 
Gontaut-Biron, Count de, loi, 

102, 103 
Gortchakoff, 103, 107, 108, in, 

126 
Gunsbourg, M., 61, 62, 63, 64 
Guaracino, Mr., 248, 249, 250, 

252, 253 

Harcourt, Viscount d', 72 
Hardman, Frederic, 35, 39, 42, 

70. 72, 73. 316 
Harris, Mr., 49, 69 
Hay merle. Count von, 161 
Henry, Prince, 285 
Hoftenhausen , Baron, 211 
Hohenlohe, Prince, 98, 121, 122, 

128, 129, 130, 133, 134, 140, 

151, 200 
Holstein, Baron von, 151, 152, 
^ 3^5^ 316 
Humbert, King of Italy, 220 

Ignatieff, 143 

Isabella, Queen of Spain, 81, 87 

Ismail, 308, 310 

Jacobini, Cardinal, 219, 220, 
240, 241 

Karageorgewitch, Prince, 162, 

164 
Keratry, Count de, 52, 53 
Khair-eddin- Pasha, 249, 250 
Klattau, Bishop of, 9 
Kolowrath, Count, 17, 18 
Kralta, Princess, 19 5-2 11 

Lambert, Colonel, 54 
Ledochowski, Cardinal, 223, 230 
Leo XIII., Pope, 220 — 222, 301 
Lefio, Count, 105 
Leroux, Colonel, 54 
Lesseps, M. de, 24, 25 
Lindau, Rudolphe, 315 



INDEX 



321 



Macdonald, John, 70, 77, 212, 

213 
Mackenzie, Sir Morell, 284, 287, 

288, 291 
MacMahon, Marshal, 92, 105, 

106, 119 
Marshall, Frederick, 34, 35 
Mabroyeni- Pasha, 254 
Missak-Effendi, 243 
Meurand, M., 32, ^S 
Moltke, Count, 93, 94, 102, iii, 

144 
Morphy, Count, 84, 85, 86, 88, 89 
Morris, Mowbray, 68 
Munir-Bey, 243, 245, 260 
Miinster, Prince, 292, 293, 294, 

295-300, 303-306 

Nancy, Bishop of, 92 
Nigra, Chevalier, 312, 313 
Nothomb, Baron, 132 

Oliphant, Laurence, 34, 35, 
37. 39. 42, 43. 47. 49. 68, 69, 
70. 74 

Oliphant, Mrs. Laurence, 68, 70 

Orloff, Prince, 46, 61, 105, 107, 
189, 190, 191 

Osman-Bey, 247, 256, 269 

Paget, Sir Augustus, 219 
Paris, Count de, 271-278 
Pessard, Hector de, 156, 157, 160 
Philippe-Effendi, 247, 252, 253, 

254. 257 
" Pepe-en-Bois," 41 
Pouyer-Quertier, M., 93 

Radolinski, Count, 285 
Radowitz, M. de, loi, 102, 115 
Raghib-Bey, 258, 259, 268 
Remusat, Count de, 91 
Renault, Leon, 97 
Rende, Monseigneur de, 218 
Reschid-Bey, 248 
Russell, Lord Odo, 123 

Said-Pasha, 243, 246, 249 



Saint-Hilaire, Barthelemy, 30 
St. Vallier, Count, 127, 133, 135, 

136, 139, 181, 200 
Salignac, Lieutenant Fenelon de, 

, 54 

Salisbury, Lord, 127 
San Reino, 279-291 
Sartorius, Baron, 210, 211 
Seckendorfif, Count von, 285 
Shuvaloff, 147, 148 
Simon, M. Jules, 161 
Smythe, Mr., 250 
Sophie, Princess, 284 

Theodori Kara, 161 

Thiers, M., 18, 24, 26, 27, 30, 

31. 32, 33' 37. 38. 39. 42, 44. 

45. 46, 47. 52-67, 91, 145. 146, 

239 
Thiers, Mme, 52, 54 
Timachief, M., 44 

Valon, Count Bertrand de, 61, 

63 
Valon, Countess de, 61, 104 
Victoria, Princess, 283 
Villeboisnet, General Espivent de 

la, 29, 30 
Vinchent, M., 133, 138 

Waddington, M., 119, 123, 147, 
180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 189, 
190, 191, 192 
Waddington, Mme., 119 
Waiss-Bey, 247, 248, 250, 254 
Wallace, Mackenzie, 134, 137, 138 
Wasck, Reverend Father, 4 
William I., Emperor of Germany, 
93, 95, 103, 204, 205, 206, 

286, 288, 289, 296, 297, 298 
William II., Emperor of Ger- 
many, 283, 285, 287, 293, 296, 
297 

YousoupoFF, Princess, 113 

ZiRio, Mme. de, 281-284, 286, 

287, 289 



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